


Gathering of the Team (remastered)

by Vildtiger



Series: Brothers and Sisters of Arms [1]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Team Fortress 2
Genre: F/M, Graphic Description- toture, M/M, Medic is not too crazy, Multi Point of View, Permanent Injury/dead, Racism, Religious Conflict, Slow Burn, SpyDad, Urban Fantasy, building relationships, daemon, in Golden Compass universe, mention of rape, smarter Soldier but still a crazy patriot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26919874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vildtiger/pseuds/Vildtiger
Summary: Nathan never would've believed his boss was part of the terrorists called Team Fortress, nor that his daemon's quirk to continue changing form would get him into trouble he cannot get out from. Unaware that his boss, a man with strange sharp eyes, and the father he no longer remembers is doing everything in their power to save him and the other children the Magisterium has caught. by gathering allies from unlikely places but all seen the ugly side of the Church and willing to risk their lives for this rescue mission.
Series: Brothers and Sisters of Arms [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964158
Kudos: 10





	1. Prologue

Imagine a world where the Great War, better known as the First World War never happened. Instead of plunging into senseless war among kings and queens, the European Monoaches instead continued to strengthen their alliance with one another. By the influence of a charismatic bishop, those in Europe's center slowly stopped relying on bloodlines, to instead form alliances through a shared religion.

Doing that was easy; many of Europe's countries held the same belief system and tweaked those straying away could easily be changed. It was only a matter of time and carefully chosen words by the charismatic bishop, more countries came to join this growing leadership of the church. This new alliance, which brought safety and stability, something the starting to die out Monarchy failed to grant their subjects. The Church preached answers to something a lot of people struggled to find; a place to belong in this terrifying huge world. The Church gave them an answer, and people took it, thankful they no longer needed to walk through life blindly.

The Church quickly grew into a world power and in a matter of years, it held control over most of Europe. Although this relatively young world power lacked military strength, the Church made up for its strong economy and followers. Russia and America weren't troubled by the Church, though, for this large religion hadn't made any move to pick a fight with them. America left it alone, while Russia at times got into conflicts with the Church because countries under its control were trying to shift side due to the opportunities it offered. Still, the frozen lands' world power considered the Church more a nuisance than an actual threat. That was what the Church wanted, the formed counsel had learned from past wars not to be hasty, and although they all wanted to rid the world of these heathens, they had to demonstrate patience.

Europe's world power would continue to form allies with the surrounding countries, strengthening their community throughout the holy book and correct those trying to stir up needless drama.

This sort of peace was welcomed by the people living in either of these three world powers, though those part of the Chuch wanted the two others gone and quietly wished for war. They kept the peace for years, but as tension grew among people of the Church, their hatred against these great sinners of America and Russia soon got too much and so, the council declared war.

Starting with Russia, a country that has tried to keep people from converting and accept their embosom.

Russia was more than happy to go to war with the Church, believing in the country's strength and the people's loyalty towards the Tsar. But this Monarch failed to realize that their generations of negligence have weakened their country but also at how the Church has been doing things meant that everyone under their rule, every man and woman shared their philosophy in the nature of daemon. The truth that when their manifestation of the souls settles into a single shape during a person's adolescents, it reveals who they are and whatever shape the daemon took would determent the soon to be adult what their purpose in life. That the moment the Settling has come to a child, this child should be treated as an adult and shown what their role in society should be.

This belief made life easier for people, and for many, it has always been part of their life. The Church teachings didn't harm anyone; it helped people figure out their role in life by these teachings. In many ways, it allowed people to know where they would of best use for the world just by looking at their daemon settled form. If a dog, they would suit best as a servant or a soldier, A snake; the person would be best as a spy or cunning businessman, a cat and this person was the best option as a designer or sociology. A person with a bird - depending on the species would either become a tracker or someone knowing exactly how to communicate with their voice.

A child might not like at the start that their daemon will settle into, but over time they will accept that is just how it is and will come to appreciate whatever form their daemon take.

Russia didn't care much about that philosophy, the Tsar was much more interested in claiming more lands.

However, unlike the war you from our world, where Germany, Italy, and Japan fought against several countries such as France, the USA, and Russia. They lost because they spread themselves out too much and got themselves surrounded by each side. In this world, the war ended much differently. The lack of the first war and the Church cleverly creating allies, used the now united countries to give Russia's Tsar a fight they would never forget.

France, a country that has become a powerful alliance for the Church, sent troops' into Russia, but even with the disheartened Russian soldiers, the Church's troops couldn't break through the enemy line and the war started to stretch out.

America's people barely bothered themselves with the conflict on the other side of the Atlantic. Two incredible wealthy brothers didn't spare a second thought on what happened in the world either. They were much busier waging their own war. They started by how their dead father shared his wealth and lands to them so that it was like the father wanted these two brothers to fight and fight they did.

It was set for the third brother to fight over this wealth and lands as well. But he was smart enough to realize it wouldn't get him anywhere in life, and quickly realized the waste of time that whole inheritance was. He left his part of the will to his brothers and went to Europe in search of his wealth.

This third brother ended up joining the Church, although not much of a believer, did agree with the Church's philosophy and therefore agreed to be baptized. It opened several doors for him, and the man, always ready to take hold when the opportunity appeared. He started working alongside the Church military, and with his incredible brain, the Church army got weapons that turned the tide of this four-year-long war. The council allowed the third brother to rise in ranks, for even though he wasn't a believer, they all knew this man was a great asset and worth keeping close.

That choice served them well, for this man; Grey Mann was the one who went out and made an agreement to a massive military society, one equivalent of the Spartan people in our world.

These people were called Tatarian: warriors at heart that knew little else but conquest.

The Tartarian did not live by the same religion as the Church, but with Grey's silver tongue, they agreed that if they aided the Church, that world power would not only allow them large chunks of Russia's lands, a chance they wouldn't waste, but the Church promised to leave their culture alone. An opportunity they wouldn't waste.

The Tartarian went to war with Russiam, and since they had a lot of experience in conquering people in the harsh winter, they weren't slowed down and gave the Church army the needed force to finally break into Russian's capital and in the end win the war. As promised, the Tartar's were allowed to occipy large parts of Russia and keep their culture, and even though the Church didn't appreciate such freedom, they could see the potential of having such a bloodthirsty people on their side.

With Russia defeated, the Church no longer had to worry about getting attacked from that front, allowing the council to turn their full attention on the world power past the great ocean. The United States of America, the final world power that stood in their way of world domination.

Fear grew in America; everyone knew war was coming and braced themselves for the conflict looming at the horizon.

Few didn't pay this impending war any mind. Two of them were Grey Mann's brothers. They were too busy pitting their nine mercenaries in their personal war against one another. All in an attempt to claim the lands and factories their father left them.

It didn't take long before war came to America, but other than getting annoyed about the two world powers armies ended up destroying some of their factories, the two brothers didn't give the outside world their attention. They were more focused on conquering the lands of their father with their own little army.

War raged for almost a whole decade, both the brothers and the world powers war was at a standstill.

And once again, Grey Mann stepped in to put a stop to it. First, he dealt with his two brothers; they died as they lived. Squabbling over petty arguments and being utterly oblivious to their surroundings. With them gone, Grey hired the mercenaries, and they agreed with a large amount of cash he offered them.

He used this new secret army to infiltrate and assassinate any higher-ranked people, destroying America from within.

The American's were strong, but an army without a leader meant nothing. With the assassination of the president and his top generals, the whole thing started to break down. The great power of the United States of America could not overpower the European world power and, in the end, lost the war. But unlike the Russian people who just wanted the war to end so their lives could improve. Like when they fought away from Brytain's rule, the Americans refused to submit to the Church's way of life and even without their leaders, the people kept up the fight.

It did not take long for the Church to shift its tactic in subduing the country to use America as an example.

The military was swift in retribution against those that refused to submit to their new rulers. Any man of Congress, any general who refused to promise their loyalty to the Church, was executed. Those civilians set on stay as a true patriotic American would mysteriously disappear, never to be seen again. Fear soon became greater than the people's want for freedom, and over time, the country's people submitted to their new rulers' will.

When certain that the USA was completely crippled, the Church allowed France and Denmark to claim America as their new colony. For France, this price was from the many soldiers the country sent to war for the Church. For Denmark, the constant flow of supplies and engineers that kept their tanks running on the battlefield. Like with Grey, the Church made sure to graciously reward powerful allies and in turn, ensures they would stay loyal to the Church.

Denmark and France took the lands given to them, and as the Church planned, it ensured a strong loyalty in these two countries.

The upper part of America's states became New France and the middle became New Denmark. Everything that was American, their history, country pride, and even their language was taken from this once great country's citizens. Thus the USA was no more. Only a few books handpicked by the Church and stories told in secret rooms would remain to remind people of what happened to those who would dare to oppose the Church.

Texas and Mexico weren't touched as the people from there have been smart enough not to stirr up a fight they knew they couldn't win. Thus the benevolent Church left the only remnants of a once-great power alone, however, did enforce their laws and belief onto these two countries. Texas and Mexico reluctantly submitted to those demands, having no wish to disappear from history like the rest of America.

With the fall of USA and Russia. The Church had free reigns spreading how they believe was the best way of life and no one dared to stop them.

Well, almost no one. During the war, a resistance sprung up very suddenly. At first, it was treated like any other resistance, small and more of a nuisance than a threat, but it quickly became apparent that this resistance wasn't like the others. This group had mastered the guerilla warfare and even after the Great War's end, this resistance kept harassing the Church's military and were very good at it. They became a thorn in the Church's side and much to that world power's chagrin, would continue being so for the next one hundred years.

No one knows how this resistance started, except the nine people who were the first resistance members. All people knew these men were very good at their job and inspired many people to take up arms against the Church. First, it was the remnants of American, later people oppressed by the Church's laws.

This resistance group spread like wildfire the Church could not contain as more and more people joined the ranks and kept on sabotaging the Church's plans.

It got so bad; it forced the world power to create an army made to fight this growing thorn bush. This army soon got known as the Magisterium and it would do anything to stop this fire of the resistance members— or terrorists as the Magisterium and most people would call them.

The founders gave the world any reason calling them that, for they weren't kidding around. They destroyed and slaughtered anyone connected to the Church— which was everything at that time. They showed no mercy and the followers went along with this brutality, granting them a fear people would hold decades ahead.

Grey's daughter found the founders of this resistance, she thought their demise would be the end of the opposition but like weed, it had grown bigger than those nine men. New and better people took the mantle of leadership among the resistance. Still, the Magisterium had no way of knowing who they were among this growing army of common people which since its creation had destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed countless Church followers.

People feared them, but those who hoped for a future where the Church did not have a say what they should believe. Dictate over their role in life. They supported this resistance and prayed for their victory. The resistance held many names, but only one suited this crazily brave organization. One every member of its rank would proudly declare their association if caught by the enemy whenever they would defeat the Church or get eliminated like so many before them.

They would continue to be the Brothers and Sisters of Team Fortress Resistance.


	2. A normal boy with an unusual daemon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Hello everyone, Viltiger here.  
>  This is a remastered version of an older story I made a few years back. However, it does not mean I got everything right, but I am trying to give this story the meat it deserves.  
> Now, the characters in this story have accents or, at times speaks an entirely different language. I don't know how to write dialects and I doubt many of you want a translator around to understand what is going on. So I resolve in keeping it simple by not doing either. You will see what I mean in future chapters.  
> Enjoy!**

Rain wasn't unusual in Boston; every city located at the great inlet of New France dealt with this kind of humid weather and people living there have long gotten used to it. Today wasn't much different; a new cloud of water fell over the city and everyone who could have already sought cover from the rain— no wish to get wet this early on the day.  
One person did not have the luxury of seeking cover inside the industrial buildings. In fact, Nathan didn't even have the chance to get appropriately dressed and his fleece jacket sucked the water like a sponge. He really regrets that now, but being late for work the last thing on one's mind is to track down his raincoat.  
Nathan loves running, been doing that since he was a small kid. He started running to keep up with his much stronger brothers, and now Nathan can proudly say he is the fastest of their brotherly gang. Who needs muscles when his opponent cannot catch him? Yeah, Nathan loves running.  
But his current situation does put a damp on his pride. Even with his dashing speed, Nathan cannot avoid getting soaked or get past the many puddles coating the streets he's been living on for as long as he can remember.  
"This sucks!" His daemon; a grey-brown wild rabbit, named Nalini complains loudly. Like him, she's soaked from the rain, making her usual scruffy fur flatten awkwardly down. Looking down, he sees Nalini is going out of her way to avoid the bigger pools of water but eventually gives up and runs through them. It's not like she can get any wetter. "I told you drinking Bonk before bed was a bad idea!"  
"Yeah yeah." Nathan huffs down to her, not really in the mood to hear his daemon's complaints, but he does know why Nalini is like this. She only displays the annoyance he currently feels about this whole thing. _'I really shouldn't have taken that energy drink.'_ and worries this screwup might be what gets him sacked.

He can't fault her for voicing his annoyance, however; "It's also your fault and you know it." He can be angry about Nalini's stalling habit when he needed to get his ass moving.  
Nalini takes shape as a seagull and flies up before him. "Come on." She whines playfully. "Tom Jones was on the radio! So what we're coming a bit late?" She flies a bit beforehand, only stops when they both feel the discomfort from the limit of the invisible bond between them. She turns around in midair, allowing him to catch up. "It is only a one in a lifetime we might hear one of his speeches!"  
Nathan grins, so right she is. "Yeah, I admit it was awesome hearing him call out to his fans."  
"Like having him talks directly to us." She agrees and lands on his shoulders, taking shape as a bullfrog hoping the rain will bother her less. Nathan continues running through the rain, trying to reach his job as quickly as possible.

Nathan might not look like it, but he is special– well, his daemon at least.  
Every person has a daemon; it is a manifestation of one's inner self and will take the shape of an animal closest to their human's personality. When a person is young, the daemon can take many forms, choosing one representing what the child is currently feeling, but they also display shapes out from their human imagination. People said that the more imaginative forms a child's daemon could make, the smarter this child was. The form changing is encouraged in early childhood. In contrast, a teen got encouraged to stick at whatever form they felt most comfortable with as people believed there was a better chance for their daemon to settle into that form. Still, it's mostly speculation that a daemon can settle into an entirely different form when their human reaches adulthood.  
Settling, something that happens to everyone; it's when a preteen becomes an adult, shown by when their daemon settles into one permanent shape. Whatever that shape might be, it is going to reveal the young adult who they are and where they belong in the world. After Settling, the now-adult can seek out higher education and be a proud member of society. 

But that's not going to happen for Nathan; he won't be able to know his place just by looking at Nalini. See, Nathan has long reached past the period where a daemon should settle into a permanent form, but that never happened to Nalini. Even at the age of nineteen; Nathan has a daemon who can continue to change shape, exactly like a child's daemon.  
Because of this, people are shunning Nathan and it has made it very hard for him to live independently. When a boss of his working place discovers Nalini's quirk to shift shape, he will get fired instantly, ostracized and in worst cases; attacked.  
Dell is the only one who hasn't treated him like a freak, but an equal– as much a troublemaker like Nathan now can be considered an equal. Dell hasn't said anything about Nathan's bit stained history, but Nathan knows Dell is aware of it. Most people in these parts of town know about the turf war he and his brothers are waging with other gangs. But at some point, they all have to grow up. That's why Nathan has been trying so hard not to screw up when it comes to his job at Dell. He just cannot risk losing the only place that has accepted him as who he is.

Many might say that being special is great; it makes one stand out. But standing out is fricking hard... Nathan hasn't felt normal ever since he turned seventeen. When he was unable to hide the uniqueness of his daemon. All of his school friends, when they realized he wasn't like them... they turned their backs on him. Not a single one stayed at his side...  
It's easy enough for Nathan to get in contact with people. He can be quite the charmer when he wants to. No, the problem is keeping a genuine relationship with said people. Every single time when Nalini changes shape, people get weirded out, scared and sometimes even hostile. Been called names so often that Nathan has become numb to it, and he wishes it was the same when it came to friends but... Nathan does not do well if being alone. He needs to be around people, and he's not getting that. People wants him to be normal and Nathan wishes he could. It would make his life so much easier, but it's not like he can make Nalini stop changing shape; it would be like telling him to become an entirely different person.

"It was easier when Danica was around." Nalini remarks on his shoulders and Nathan nods in agreement, quietly musing to himself that he misses those days. His cousin always understood him, she is his best friend, and Nathan wishes she and his aunt soon would return from their business trip. Maybe this time, finally, see his cousin's hero in the form of her old man. Danica always spoke so highly about the man, and Nathan would like to meet this seemly cool wildlife hunter someday.  
Nathan arrives at the factory he has been working for about a year now. The shop itself got the newest models of zeppelins Dell has built. The quiet country music plays through the shop, but is far too low to cover his wet footsteps.  
Nalini takes the form of a terrier and shakes the water off, Nathan would've been annoyed if he hasn't been so wet that getting more on his legs really didn't matter. He does sign his daemon to be quiet before carefully opening the door leading to the workshop. Unlike the shop itself, which is embarrassingly clean and kinda empty, the workshop got metal and parts for the zeppelin everywhere. The two zeppelins under construction stand each side of the workshop, surrounded by parts that at some point will be added to them.  
Nathan is certain his mother would compare the workshop as his room, but there is a difference between the two though; Dell's mess is way more organized.  
The loud sound of a machine points out that this shop owner is busy welding two metal parts together. "Maybe he hasn't noticed." Nalini suggests and Nathan can only hope that Dell indeed has been so busy with his work that he hasn't noticed his assistance has been running late. Counting on that, Nathan starts sneaking over to the other zeppelin inside the workshop, remembering from yesterday that it needed some parts moved.

"Trouble getting out of bed, eh boy?" The golden beaver at Dell's feet remarks and the daemon of Dell turns to the frozen up young man, smiling like a mother who just caught her child with the hand in the cookie jar. She puts down the wires she has been braiding together, "Or do you have another excuse for being an hour late?"

Can't say the same about Naira; she must've kept an eye out after him. Nathan flinches from getting busted and Nalini turns into a moth in embarrassment but does quickly turn into a hawk right as he tries avoiding further humiliation with a cheeky remark. "Watch broke down, and you should see the rain. It's terrible!"

The beaver rolls her purple eyes, still with that smile. "If you say so." She returns to work right as her human, Dell shuts down the welder and turns to him, still with the welding goggles over his eyes. "What matters that you are here." Dell says with that southern drawl of his, giving him an air of friendliness. Nathan doubt this guy could hurt a fly, even though he sure got the muscles for it. Dell is incredibly easygoing, and Nathan has yet to see the man get angry, but with his lack of options for a job, he sure isn't planning on trying.  
Dell leaves the metal frame he has been working on, gesturing for Nathan to come over. "Let's find you some dry clothing. Can't have you get a cold."

"You're not making me walk in your clothing." Nathan flat out tells him straight away. He would look twice as skinny that he already is in Dell's clothing– not to mention ridicules since he's a head higher than the Texan.

Dell turns to him, giving him a look behind those welding goggles. "Good thing your mother thought ahead then." He disappears into his office for a moment, returning with a small box filled with old clothing Nathan recognizes, some he has been searching for.

"So that's where it went." Nathan takes his favorite t-shirt he bought at a baseball game. It is worn but still has several years' lifetime of worth. He takes the rest of the clothing, then stops, realizing what his boss had just told him. His mother did this for him; she must've known that he might one day get to the job wet and cold. He's lucky having such an awesome mom.

As if reading his mind, "Be sure to thanks her when you get home, string-bean." Dell remarks and leaves the room, allowing Nathan to change. Out in the workshop, the Texan calls back to him. "When you have changed, come to me. I got a few errands for you."

And he's lucky having such an understanding boss. Nathan does not like working this place at all; he finds construction boring, always the same thing going on. But he likes Dell, although the man can be a bit dull. A trite man to an almost blissful extent.  
It's like Dell knows exactly how his day— hell probably his life is going to be and seems completely okay with it. Nathan wouldn't mind some daily routine, but not to this extent Dell has with his life. If that has been him, Nathan would have gone insane, but he respects Dell enough not to try and mess with the man's boring way of life.  
"Better get dressed before Naria persuades him to throw a wrench after us." Nalini remarks.  
Of course, Dell is too much of a nice guy to do such a thing, but Nathan is unsure about his daemon. Naria has a surprisingly twisted sense of humor, making Nathan wonder what kind of thoughts were going inside Dell's mind for him to get such a daemon.  
However, not wanting to waste any more time Nathan quicken the pace in changing from cold wet to dry and comfortable clothing. When done, he hurries over to the worktable where Dell is currently taking out a huge sheet-like bag that will get filled with gas for the zeppelin he builds. "So, what do you want me to do?" Nathan asks the Texan.

Dell doesn't even stop his work when he says. "I have some tanks I would like you to move over to the pumps."  
His daemon nods towards the location of the gas tanks. "When you're done and have the energy for it, I would highly 'predicate it if you could give a letter to a client of mine."  
"He doesn't trust the mailman delivering it in time." Naira remarks amused, Dell, on the other hand, isn't and scowl at the smug beaver. "That's not it, you silly girl, simply making sure he's getting a little out from this old place." He smiles knowingly at Nathan.

Did he mention that he likes Dell? This is why he can deal with working in this boring place, because he has an awesome boss. "I can do that." Nathan says and leaves to do the first task. The tanks in the storage room do not look like much. They are out of plastic and holding gas, which makes a zeppelin fly; Nathan guesses they probably won't weigh too much. He grabs the tank and pull— okay, they are a LOT heavier than he estimated! Seriously, how can mere gas weight like a barrel of water?! Nathan lets go, takes a deep breath and tries again, this time bending his knees like his oldest brother once taught him. "Alright, I can do it." And lifts it. He almost topples over by the weight. _'How can Dell make it look so freaking easy?!_  
Nathan has seen him carry these like they are nothing.  
"Never mess with the guy who can lift these with ease, huh?" Nalini remarks from his shoulder, taking the form of a field mouse.  
Nathan nods in agreement, struggling to carry the tank over to the pump that fills the huge balloon looking things that are lying around the workshop. He drops the tank as soon as he can, and already dread his task it fetching the five others. "Man, this is going to suck balls." He muses to his daemon, who nods in agreement.  
Nathan notices that Dell has turned to his location and quickly he straightens up, giving the man a confident grin. No way in hell he's going to show Dell that carrying a single gas tank has him winded.  
Dell gives him an encouraging nod and returns back to work. Nathan lets his posture drop as well as his confidence. A sight, "Let's just get this crap over with..." and he goes over to get the next tank.  
Now knowing what he's dealing with, lifting it over to the bigger gas container was easier, still challenging but much more manageable.  
After having placed the second and going for the third, Nathan wonders out loud to his daemon. "I wonder why Dell wants us to deliver that letter?"  
Nalini rolls her eyes, she turns into a cat and jumps onto one of the tanks. "He does it as a sign of trust." Both turn to where the man and his daemon beaver work. "You know how important he considers his work."  
"Yeah, still weird he trusts me with such a thing." Nathan muses and grabs the third tank. Of course, he is flattered by the gesture but he hasn't exactly proven himself to be the most reliable person.

Nathan does have a bit of a problem keeping to a schedule and thanks to the gang he and his older brothers made, his record isn't clean either. Neither of their lives has been easy, and people might not think getting into fights was a good idea, but hey, it was a good outlet to one's frustrations and made their district just a bit safer for others. Police might not agree; Nathan and his brothers have come to blows with the law more than once, so they got quite the record with the law enforcement. Not sure, but this history of street violence might also have been why Nathan had trouble finding a job, but it shouldn't be the case since all of his brothers could get a job fairly easily.  
Again, Dell is aware of this but does not seems bothered. And once again, Nathan considers himself lucky to have gotten a workplace at this man's place.  
"Bigger reason why not to screw this one up." Nalini reminds him, and he cannot agree more. Nathan might dislike working at this small factory, but he has it a lot better here than any other place. With the last tank placed at the pump and regained the sense in his arms. Nathan heads over to Dell and hears about this letter delivery the Texan wishes from him. "Something about a letter?"

"Yeup," Dell puts down his tools, and from his chest pocket, hands him this important letter, "I want you to deliver this to a client of mine." and after have shown the location to his client's house. Dell adds, "Don't lose it." this time in this rare harsh tone of his, clarifying how important this letter is.

"I won't." Nathan promises and puts the letter deep into his pocket. Nalini even turns into a mouse and crawls down the same pocket in the sign she will not allow it to fall out.

With satisfaction brimming from the man's blue eyes, Dell explains, "Now, I don't want you just to drop it inside a mailbox. This letter has to be delivered directly to my client's hands. It's the tall man with the horn owl daemon." Nathan nods and Dell shoos him out, "Get those feet moving, boy."

It's one of the few times Nathan does not mind being called boy, Dell means nothing malicious by it, in fact, the man says the word more like a nickname. Once again out on the streets, this time, it's not raining and Nathan is thankful for that, for he really does not want to change clothing one more time. He speeds through the damp streets, dodging people with ease, not hitting one single person even though he runs at full speed.  
Nathan prides himself for his speed and agility; being the runt of a gang of brothers, he learned at a very early age that if he wants something, then he better be the first to it. Of course, Nathan isn't weak, he's just not a giant meat bag as some of his brothers, and he never would win a physical confrontation against such a type. His speed is his strength, and with it, Nathan can not only reach a fight first, but his speed has allowed him to avoid fights others might not. Unlike his brothers, Nathan can choose his battles and that little thing is great.

Arriving at the fancy building Dell wanted the letter delivered, Nathan at first noticed that he has ended up in the upper-class area but isn't surprised by it. He sets down to a more casual walk and not even winded from the run, quickly checks his pocket and when sure the letter is still there. Nathan walks over to the door and knocks three times, while waiting for whoever to open the door, he allows himself to scan the area. The first thing he takes notice is how embarrassingly clean everything is, like people here spend all their time cleaning.  
"What else can they throw their money at?" He muses to himself, grinning at that jap at the rich people, but quickly turns his attention back to the door. The door opens and a moment later, a man in a black suit with a labrador as his daemon appears. One look and it's clear this guy looks like he has spotted something disgusting.

"Whatever you have, we aren't buying."

And right there, Nathan instantly dislikes this guy. He has not only reminded Nathan why he does not bother to strike up a chat with wealthy people; they always look down on the common people like they are not worth their time. But that this guy thinks everyone not dressed in fancy clothing is a peddler. He takes the letter, almost squeezing Nalini in the progress and angrily shows the fancy-pants the reason for being here. "I'm here to deliver this, dumb-ass."

The man sends him a glare for the name-calling but does take a look at the letter. He frowns, looking a bit confused. "Oh, so you're Mr. Conagher's delivery boy?" and the man reaches out for the letter. "I take it from here—"

But before he can take it, Nathan shoves the letter back into his pocket.  
"He prefers Dell, and he specifically told me to give this directly to the client." He tells the man, getting the feeling this jerk-face is just a butler. Wouldn't surprise him since this guy's daemon is a dog. Servants and soldiers always have dogs as a daemon for some weird-ass reason. It makes him think about Dean, and the thought of him being a servant is a joke he's so going to make when getting back home.

The butler is not happy, "No way I'm letting some street-rat into—"

"Garrett, who is it?" A female voice question interrupts the butler, unbeknown saving him from a punch to the face.

The man named Garrett turns his head away from the fuming Nathan and into the house. "It's nothing miss, just a delivery boy."

"Oh, Lenard has been waiting for that." The voice replies and commands the butler, much to his dismay. "Let him in."

"Yes, miss." The butler replies dully and reluctantly steps away from the door, allowing Nathan inside, but before Nathan can get far, the man points down to his shoes. "Take those filthy things off."

Nathan sends the man a glare, his footwear might be worn, but he paid good money for them. Before he can insult the man, an idea of petty revenge strikes his mind. Nathan smirks, "Nah, I think you need a little work around here." and makes sure to really stomp the dirt under the shoes off. Butler Garret is fuming, but they both know there's nothing he can do about it as Nathan is now a guest to the master. All the butler can do is fetch the tools to clean up the mess. The dog is glaring at him all the way but seemly got enough self-control at not barring her teeth at him.

Grinning, Nathan walks into this mansion of a house, forgetting the ass butler by this place's view. This room looks like something coming out of those romance movies his mother likes to watch so much, _'Darn these people must earn by the day what my family can scrape by in our lifetime.'_ He remarks to himself and that thought is kinda dishearting.  
He passes by an oil painting of a beautiful garden; its frame is out of oak. He whistles at the sight, and he might not be into art, but he has been around his aunt's studio long enough to know this piece of art is expensive. But other being pretty, not much of use.

"This way please."

Turning around, Nathan's eyes land on the prettiest girl he has ever laid his eyes on. She looks to be around his age, except dressed like a million in that purple dress. Her black hair braided into a bun, allowing her beautiful green eyes to stand extra out. Beside her stands her daemon, a middle-sized and snowy white dog with bright blue eyes. Okay, he is in love with this gorgeous—a sharp pain at his left-hand snaps him out from his daze and shoots a glare to his daemon; the one that bit him.  
Still, in her mouse form, Nalini returns the glare. "Get a move on dumb-ass. You look like a fool."  
Oh right, Nathan follows the angel deep inside the house. Down a small hallway, the angel knocks on a door and a man, probably her father appears. Nathan notices the owl on the man's shoulders; this is the guy. He takes out the letter and hands it to Dell's client.

The man takes it and reads the message. Whatever Dell wrote pleases the man. "Ah, I knew I could count on him. Could you return my answer?" He asks, catching Nathan a bit off guard.

"Eh, sure?" He replies, not seeing a reason to decline since he will be going back to the workshop anyway. Besides, Nathan doubt Dell would appreciate it if he insulted his boss's customer by refusing.

The man smiles, though not directly at him. "Wonderful, wait just a moment." And the man leaves, going back to his room to write his answer to Dell. Leaving Nathan and his daughter alone.

"So..." Nathan starts but before he can come with any good lines, his dream girl leaves; not even her daemon gives him a second glance. It's like he's not even there, much to his disappointment but it's to be expected from higher class people. He wishes he can follow but that will probably be a bad idea, he won't be able to pay if he accidentally breaks anything. So that leaves him to stand really uncomfortable while he waits for the man to write his answer.

"Hi."

Blinking in surprise from a sudden greeting from below, Nathan turns around, spotting a child around the age of five. Like his new dream girl, this young one has green eyes, her hair is honey-orange, though, but Nathan can see this girl will grow into a beautiful woman even at this age. Her daemon on her shoulder has currently taken shape as a squirrel. "Hey," he returns the greeting, quite taken aback how she succeeded in sneaking up on him.

"Are you the street-rat Garrett speaks about?" The little girl asks in the usual bluntness children got at that age.

"Um.. yeah." Nathan replies but does quickly recover from his surprise of her arrival. He spends a lot of time around smaller children; they rarely get uncomfortable around him and his unsettled daemon, "Don't listen to him though, I am no street-rat." and stealing a glance to the front door, the guy isn't there, probably somewhere else to clean. "He's just angry I made him look bad."

"Okay, I'm Clovey and this is Acario." The girl introduces herself and her daemon. Which now has taken shape as a shaky mouse. Nathan hears the mouse speaks with just as shaken voice to his human. "Y-You shouldn't talk with s-strangers."

He smiles at this. Even though Clovey came to him fearlessly, she's still nervous. And knowing how to break the ice towards nervous children, Nathan knells own so he's closer to her level. "Names Nathan, Nate for short, now you know my name, so I'm no stranger." The girl smiles and her daemon stops shaking, heh, works every time.

"You wanna play a game with me, Nate?" Clovey asks, sounding very hopeful he wants to play with her. It makes him wonder if children in the higher class aren't allowed to get out and play. If that's the case, then Nathan is glad he's from the lower class.  
He wouldn't mind entertaining this girl, more so if his thoughts about her being stuck in here are true, but... Nathan glances back to the door where her father is at the moment. It does not seem like the man is coming out soon and so he might as well keep the kid and himself entertained. "Sure," he replies Clovey, adding in case her father will appear very soon. "as long it's inside this room, alright?"

"Okay, let's play hide and seek." Clovey says and instantly runs out to the room. "I will hide. You count and no peeking!"

Grinning, he covers his eyes and starts counting out loud, listing to the girl scrambling around for a good hiding spot. Nathan finishes counting and calls out. "Ready or not, here I come!" He does wait for a moment, allowing Clovey to settle in her hiding spot, and when he can't hear her, Nathan starts searching. Nalini crawls onto his shoulders and leaps off, taking a swallow shape. She scouts the room for the girl before landing on a table, nodding towards the out folded curtain. Nathan smirks but does not go over to Clovey's hiding spot right away, he will let the girl have some enjoyment first. "Now, where can she be?" He asks loudly and walks over to a table, making sure the girl can see him from behind the curtain. "Are you... here?" He looks under the table, smiling at the giggle Clovey tries but failing to hold back.  
"What about here?" He checks underneath the lamp as if a child actually could hide under it.  
The giggling gets louder.  
Nathan walks over to the curtain, acting like he's lost and unable to hear her. "Wow, she is really good." He tells his daemon, who grins in return. "Maybe I should give up— wait, you hear it?" And he turns around and removes the curtain, cheering. "There you are!"

Clovey squeals before bursting into laugher, her daemon takes shape as a sparrow and flies chirping around Nalini who joins him in the air.  
"Now you hide." Clovey says and runs over to count.  
Nathan sends one glance to the door, but when Clovey's father shows no sign of coming out, he starts looking for a good hiding spot, not too good; he wants Clovey to find him. He hides behind the bookshelf with Nalini taking form as a rabbit, curling down and looks like a fluffy rock.  
"Ready or not, here I come!" And a very happy Clovey runs into the room, searching for her playmate with a squirrel Acario skips around to help his human find him. From his spot, Nathan watches amused the child search for him and the moment she spots Nathan, she runs over with: "Found you!" He grins and the two daemons leap around each other in a small game of tag. "Now it's your turn to count."

Just as Nathan walks over to do the counting, Clovey's father walks out from the door. "I hope I didn't make you wait for too long." and the man hands him the reply letter. Nathan takes it, ignoring the weird looks the horned owl gives the rabbit-shaped Nalini. Hopefully, she won't tell her human, but Nathan doubts it.

"Aww, does Nate has to leave?" Clovey asks sad, already had been searching for a new hiding spot. Her father blinks, a bit confused so the girl explains. "We have been playing hide and seek. He's very bad at it."

"Nah, you're just too good." Nathan remarks grinning, making the small girl beam. But he can't stay and play with her anymore; he has a letter to deliver. "Sorry, but I have to go."

"Will I see you again?" Clovey asks hopefully.

He doubts that. He never has any reason for coming to this part of the city. But he can't tell the girl that so he just smiles and waves goodbye. She returns the wave, although with a sad look on her face.

Her father does follow him back to the door. Here the man speaks, "Thank you for entertaining my child."

"It's no problem; she's a sweet girl." Nathan replies.

The father hesitates, but a whisper from his daemon and he says almost apologetic, "I would've offered you a job as her babysitter but she already got one."

 _'That babysitter is not doing a very good job.'_ Nathan remarks to himself, but not wanting to insult the man, he merely says, "Don't worry about it." and leaves the area. Hopefully, it won't rain before he's back at the zeppelin factory.  
Although that beautiful young woman clouds his thoughts and the disheartening reality that he won't ever see her again, the run back happens with relative ease.

He returns at the workshop right when the clouds decide to throw more water at them. Thankfully he escaped the water, Nathan hands Dell the reply letter.

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Dell blinks but does take the letter, remarking as he opens it. "Man's always replies no matter how many times I tell him there is no need. Recon he didn't even offer you anything to drink while you waited?"

"No, and would've been bored out of my mind if his kid hasn't dragged me into a game of hiding and seek." Nathan replies while going over to the water tank in the workshop's corner, pouring himself a glass of water.

"How was the kid?" Dell asks.

Nathan shrugs. "A little shy but nothing my charm can't handle. I'm practically her best friend now."

Dell laughs hearing this, although not surprised; Nathan does have a talent with children. He throws the fancy thanks-for-informing-him letter from his client out in the trash and asks his 'helper.' "Can you grab the right side of this balloon?" He points at the spot. "Gotta make sure there are no holes, be waste of Helium otherwise." Nathan nods and together, they get the huge zeppelin balloon folded out, which makes this tedious part of the job so much easier. Dell spots a rift in the balloon and begins to repair it.  
While he put some superglue on, he mentally checks his to-do list and soon can see that the rest is not something he would make Nathan do. Boy isn't trained in using those kind of tools, so Dell can honestly not see a reason for Nathan to stay and be bored out of his mind. "That's about all the help you can do for today." He tells the young man, adding; "Remember your wet clothing and I will see you tomorrow."

"Alright, see ya Hardhat!" And with the wet clothing under his arm, Nathan runs home. Dell returns to work, and right as he put the torn part of the balloon together. Naria remarks quite amused, "I wonder how long it will take before Nathan notices he forgot his jacket." blinking, Dell checks and indeed, the jacket is still there. Hard not to laugh at this, and when done with the gluing work, Dell hangs the damp jacket so it at least will get dry during the night. With that little side task done, Dell returns back to work.


	3. Pack of Brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **I have a DeviantART page. If you're interested, then you can find it by searching on Vildtiger. I draw scenes to my stories and even take suggestions from my readers if you wish to see a scene be visualized.  
> **  
>  now to the story

'Riiiiinnnng- click' barely awake, Nathan turns off his alarm clock and does have in mind rolling over and resume sleep, but not having any wish of running late after yesterday's screwup, he sits up grumbling, which made the rabbit-shaped Nalini fall off his chest. Doubts she even noticed it; unlike him, she is fast asleep. He leaves the bed and has to carry the still asleep rabbit daemon along with him to the bathroom since apparently that part of him refuses to wake up. He does get a bit out of his drowsiness when splashed water on his face. Nalini wakes, but as he wanted to in bed, she rolls over and goes back to sleep in the bathtub. Too tired to be bothered by his daemon's laziness, Nathan resumes the morning routine of washing the last sleep dust out from his eyes and prepare himself for today's work.

"Ey, Nate! Move your ass out!" One of his older brother's shouts. Nathan is not awake enough to figure out who it is by mere voice. Does show when Bernard shows at the door, his dark red hair messier than usual and maybe it's just him, but guy looks like he could use a shave. Something Nathan didn't deal with. "I need the bathroom more than you!" Bernard sneers.

Nathan barely reacts, all of his brothers are assholes, and polite talk has never been on their mother's priority list when raising them. Bernard is the worst though, guy always got one hell of a temperament, which shows his daemon's form settled into. If more awake, Nathan would've made a snarky comment, but he has just gotten up from bed and brain yet not fully function, so all he can say; "You get it when I'm done." He grumbles to his least liked older brother and reaches out for the brush but forgets all about that small task of brushing his messy hair when he feels pain—  
as if he got a giant needle pieced right into his thigh.  
Nalini probably felt it way worse, for it was her who got stung by his jerk brother's wasp daemon. She jumps a half meter up in the air, turns into a calico colored cat and whacks the wasp right the same time Nathan spins to Bernard, enraged, "What the hell man?!"

The wasp daemon easily dodges Nalini's claws and lands on her human's shoulder, letting him do the talk. "I told you to move it small-fry," Bernard remarks coldly, now mocking him by leaning up against the door frame in such an obnoxious smug manner. His older brother smirks deviously. "or Keelea's next hit will hurt a lot more."

Nathan knows that Bernard's threats are rarely just that, like a wasp, he will strike from little provocation. He might be the third youngest, but Bernard is the most aggressive and one of the stronger members of this gang of brothers. Nathan knows that he never would win in a fistfight with Bernard; he'd tried and always got his ass beaten. Still, that does not mean Nathan is going to take this crap from his brother. "I was here first! If you want it, get up earlier!" Nalini jumps onto his shoulder, hissing at Keelea that looks ready to strike again.

"And you should be a little faster changeling!"

"Stop calling me that, asshole!" Nathan snaps. He hates getting reminded that he is not like anyone else. For some reason, his daemon has never gone through Settling, and Bernard just loves to remind him about this anomaly. To remind him why no one wishes to be near him...  
Settling has always been a part of growing up; they got told their daemon will stop changing shape just as their bodies will go through puberty. It will happen whatever one wants it or not. But for Nathan, well... he's now nineteen– an adult, and still waiting for his daemon to get a permanent form.

"Then get a move on!" Bernard snaps back, stepping inside and looks ready to force Nathan outside. Of course, Nathan will put up one hell of a fight, as he refuses to be the weakest link of his brothers. 

Before this can escalate into a fistfight, John, the oldest brother still living in the house appears and steps between the two. "Cut it out Bernard or I'll promise you I will step on Keelea!" John threatens the third youngest of the brothers. Nathan is sort of glad it was John who came to split them up. John is the one stuck in the middle, being both a younger and older brother at the same time. The experience he gained throughout childhood and the many street fights alongside the three oldest has earned John a reputation of getting what he wants one way or another. John might not be physically strong, but he is very cunning and Nathan is honestly surprised that John's daemon hadn't turned into a snake from this trait. John's full attention is on Bernard, clearly aware it was him who started the fight. "Last I checked, you don't have work before an hour— oh wait." A faint smile appears on John's lips. that confused Nathan, as it seems the oldest of the house knew something he didn't. 

Bernard snorts and stomps back to his room, slamming his door with a loud bang, which made Dean's daemon bark and her human shout from the room: "Someone trying to fucking sleep here!" Understandably pissed since Dean is working the night shift, but it's not like the third youngest of this pack cared as he yelled back: "Then what about you make Rachel stop yapping!" said daemon barked at him again, and soon the two were in a shouting match.

John rolls his eyes at this, and turning Nathan. "Do me a favor and ignore him." Taking off his glasses and begins to clean them in his shirt. "Bernard's pissy he got written up at his job." Oh, so that's what John was on about. 

Easy for him to say. It is hard to ignore someone who took a jab at a sour spot, and Nathan does not care that Bernard is lashing out because of something he most likely deserves. "You wouldn't have tolerated it if someone insulted Adonis's shape." He throws back, unlike most people here in New France, John's daemon took the shape of a more exotic animal; a basilisk lizard.  
John eyes him that he got that one right, but like so many other times, the oldest of the brothers in the house does not speak what his expression says. Instead; "Don't start any fights you cannot win." with his daemon shifting position on his shoulders, his long tail makes a quick flick but otherwise stays calm.

Rolling his eyes, Nathan heads downstairs, "Take your fortune cookies somewhere else, John." His older brother snorts in response if out of annoyance or amusement, Nathan does not know. He does find some glee that John has decided to lecture the crap out of Bernard. He hears Dean yell again: "Someone is trying to sleep here! Take your shit-talk somewhere else!" Much to the amusement of Nathan.

Downstairs, he finds his mother, already busy cooking for them all. It surprises him that ma hadn't gone upstairs and torn them all a new asshole by fighting this early in the morning. Their mother is a strong-willed and taking-no-crap-from-anyone kind of woman and they all learned at an early age that they better not piss off their mother as she could be devious in her punishments. "Morning ma." He greets her, takes a seat and grabs a nearby bowl for his cereal. Not really in the mood for food, but Nathan knows that he will regret it if he does not eat. The work Dell has for him requires a lot of energy and the day will be hellish if he does not get any sort of breakfast.

Ma puts a toasted bread with butter on, right beside his bowl. "Isn't it a bit early getting into a fight?" She asks, displeased but fortunately not yet angry enough to tear into them all.

"Bernard's the one who started it..." Nathan grumbles. His mother does not look convinced, but this time he wasn't the one who started the fight. "Honest, I just wanted the bathroom."

"I believe him." There's first there that Nathan notices that Ken is downstairs; he's sitting inside the living room, eating his cereal on the couch as if he got a vacation and not soon has to get to work. Swallowing his food, Ken points his spoon up where they all can hear John and Bernard still arguing. "Bernard's been extra pissy since yesterday, been picking fights with me all night." and he is the only one who would be this chill about it. Ken is only a year younger than Nathan but he is by far the most laidback of all the brothers. 

Their mother sighs, something she often does, she resumes work on making breakfast. "I take that's why your other brothers are yelling?"

Taking a big bite from the bread, and swallowing. "Dean only yells because he won't get any sleep." Nathan points out. and does sympathize slightly with him. Get woken up all the time when one just want to sleep; it must suck. "John is lecturing Bernard because asshole called me a changeling."

"Auch, that's low." Ken remarks from his spot.

Mother looks appalled at him that Bernard really said that, everyone in the house knows how much Nathan hates to be reminded of how different he is compared to others. Her expression darkens into calm anger, "Seems like I have to speak with your brother later today."

Nathan exchanges a look with Ken and both know that their older brother will be torn to shreds by their mother. Both wish they would be around to see that firework, but alas, they got work to focus on.  
It pleases him in knowing that he will get payback for that horrid nickname, but... deep down, Nathan knows he is a changeling, a freak among people. "He got a point." He muses and asks mother something he has asked himself so many times. "Ma, why am I so different? Why haven't Nalini settled?"

He notices Ken shift on his spot at the couch. It annoys him but can't stop his brother from listening in on this conversation. Then again, Nathan much rather wants Ken to hear this; one who is too laidback to care about gossip than some of his other brothers.  
She puts two new pieces of bread into the toasters. Nathan figures it's fort John and Bernard– when they are done having a shouting match. "I honestly don't know." Ma admits to him. It disappoints Nathan she does not have an answer, but he's sort of used to that. Most of his childhood is a mystery; like how he got this distingue cut on his left cheek, or better yet, why his father left in the first place. Ma steps over to him, and brushes her fingers gently through his still messy hair. "but whatever she settles or not; I will always love you." 

Nathan nods slowly, watching his daemon getting nuzzled by his mother's which has the form of a cat that looks a bit like a lion, which suits him since ma can be as fierce as a lion. It's nice to know ma will love him no matter what, but Nathan has the feeling that's just how mother's are. It does not really ease his gloomy thoughts and now he's on this train of thoughts, Nathan can't help but think; _'Is this why father left? Because he knew I was a freak?'_ His mother rarely talks about his father, which has giving him plenty of room to come with ideas as to why his father left. Most of them are bad. Why else would a husband leave his family? But in all honesty, he doesn't really care. Nathan has bigger things to deal with than ponder about a man that hasn't been around most of his life. "I'm getting late for work." He brushes ma off and with the toasted bread in his mouth, Nathan heads out.

He almost runs into John on the way, and just by his dumb luck; "One thing you got in common with your dad." His older brother remarks, Nathan shoots him a glare for that remark, but can't defend his father as he can barely remember the guy. What he can say though; "yeah, looks like all our dad's got that in common." John frowns at that, and Nathan feels some satisfaction he got a jap in.  
The talk about their fathers has always been a soft spot for all of them, but Nathan guesses that's what happens when only a few of them share the same father.

Today is for once dry, there is a fine layer of clouds but none of them looks to have any rain in them. For once Nathan wouldn't mind; rain would fit his current mood.  
He arrives at the workshop, grunts a hello to Dell and heads straight to work. Not really in the mood for his usual morning chat.

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The lack of talking from his assistance indicates Dell straight away that something is bothering the young man, but decides to leave him for a while. He might come over and complain about it when cooled a bit down through work. They work for about an hour and when Naira remarks; "Kid still got a dark cloud over him." Dell decides it's time to figure out what is bothering the young man. "Alright, what is wrong?" He asks Nathan and leans up against one of the huge frames to the soon to be Zeppelin. It can wait though, Nathan's well-being matters more.

"Nothing." the young man brushes his question off, continuing the work on sorting the parts for the other Zeppelin. 

Not only does the lack of talking but his daemon's shape points that's is a wagon load of bull. "Boy, you haven't been your usual chatty self." Dell remarks and Naria adds with eyes on the gloomy rat lying beside Nathan. "And Nalini looks like roadkill." Said rat shoots her a glare for that remark, but apparently in enough bad mood not even to attempt throwing random insults at her.  
yup, something is definitely bothering him. "Nathan, you can talk to me." Dell tells the young man softly, he has always tried to be approachable, especially to Nathan, who got enough crap to deal with. "Whatever it is."  
"Can't solve a problem if not addressed first." Naira remarks.

That seems to do the trick, letting out a sight, Nathan puts down the box with parts and his daemon takes the shape of that terrier mix she likes so much. "It's about Nalini," Nathan speaks after a moment of silence, "why she hasn't settled."

Dell blinks, a bit confused that this is what has been troubling the young man. A few times, they've come into the subject about their daemon's and Dell had shared that his settled awfully early, but it has never occurred to him that this young man was bothered by his little quirk. More that people shun him away because of it while Nathan is proud to have a daemon still able to change form. But it could've been all an act, to pretend that's he's fine when really not. It's sad and yet kinda amusing. Here he thought someone in his family has died. Dell can't help but chuckle, "That's what has been bothering you?" he leaves the frame and over to where the confused Nathan is standing. "Shucks. There's nothing wrong with your daemon, that's just how she is."

"What do you mean?" Nathan asks, nodding to Nalini who in turn looks up to him, doing a small wag with her tail as if hoping to cheer him up. "A daemon settles after puberty, everybody knows that." The young man muses and crosses his arms. 

Yeah, looks like it has been something that has been bothering him for quite do time. Only now something in his life broke the camel's back.  
_'Looks like we all have that moment; his is way softer than mine.'_ Dell muses to himself, but like him, Nathan got friends to help him out from this identity crisis. "Almost every daemon." He corrects him. "It is incredibly rare but there does exist people whose daemon keeps the ability to change form." Dell remembers his grandfather spoke about people such as Nathan, and how the Church wiped them all out. Nathan does not know it, but he is part of these unique people and if the Magisterium ever discovers this trait... well, Dell dreads even to think what those people will do to him. "You're one of those, be proud of who you are, but you have to be careful as well."

Nathan snorts, "Yeah, you don't have to tell me twice." he grumbles, clearly talking from experience, and Dell feels sorry for this kid. Been ostracized for something he cannot help, the propaganda keeps saying the Church is benevolent but that's a load of bull. Everyone different will either be "converted" back to their views or purged, and Dell wants either of those happen to Nathan. "But how can I be proud of who I am?" Nathan asks, frustration apparent in his voice, but he also sounds upset "When no one wants to be around me. Everyone who knows about Nalini, when they look at me, they only see a freak!" He kicks one of the crates, causing the parts to fly all over the area.

He's not really bothered by the mess Nathan made. Neither is Naria and she got hit by some of the parts. "Do you think I see you as a freak, Nathan?" Dell asks the young man.

Nathan turns to him, still upset but the question did put a lit on the anger he feels. "...No." Yet still not enough to clear up the air. "But you're the only one."

"What about your family?" Dell asks.

"Ma will love any of us whatever we do, but..." Nathan starts shifting away from him. "My brothers see me as a freak. They only tolerate me because we're family." and before Dell can attempt to counter these negative thoughts towards his family, the young man sighs and waves dismissively at him. "Forget about it. It's not like you can understand what's it's like to be different."

That's true, Dell has been the opposite of being abnormal. "True, but do you really want to become like me?" That made the young man look confused at him, Dell is not proud of saying this but he feels it's the only way for Nathan to accept himself. "I was molded my whole life to be an engineer, and my family succeed." He gestures down to Naria, "She turned into that form the moment puberty sat in for me. There was no other choice for me than to follow the family tradition."  
"Is that's what you want, boy?" His daemon asks and Nathan looks away, but at least he got the message.

"... how can you live like that?" Nathan asks him quietly, his daemon learns up against his leg, whimpering at how this very idea must freak out the young man.

"There's a reason why I don't like to be called my last name." Dell hesitates but goes back to work, "If people hear the name Conagher, they instantly think about the accomplishments my grandfather and father have done. And when they look at me." He puts on his welding googles, and while trying to lit the welder. "They see a great inventor, nothing more." He eyes the young man behind the googles, "Now, let's get back to work." Nathan nods and starts cleaning the mess his outburst caused.

At the lunch break, Nathan asks him. "Doesn't it bother you?" He eyes the young man and Nathan continues his thoughts. "Why not try and change it? I mean, if it had been me; I wouldn't like it if people saw my father instead of me– not that I know what the hell he's doing, but still."

Can't help but chuckle at that, which understandably made Nathan blink in confusion. too bad he promised to keep his lips sealed about that topic, but Dell rather not deal with Nathan's old man. He can be obnoxiously petty when he wants to. So instead: "When I was at your age, I was proud to be seen as a Conagher. Happy in knowing what my life would entail but after— let's say an eye-opening experience, I left the family business behind." Dell takes a bite of his sandwich and with it down, he continues. "Came here and started my own business. It's not much, but I built this life on my own." He eyes Naria, his smile widened ever so slightly. "And Naira has changed. After I'd left the family business, her fur started to change from brown to what you see now."

"You mean she changed color?"

Dell nods, it was a slow progress, but change she did. "Nowhere near what your daemon can do, but what changed in Naria was good enough for me." with his daemon adding smugly. "I do stand out like this, don't I?"  
Nathan laughs awkwardly at that remark.

Finishing his small laugh, the young man eyes his own daemon, currently in the form of a rabbit and smiles. "Thanks, I feel much better now." 

Dell feels mighty victorious about this. "Happy to help, string-bean."

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After Dell has closed up the shop for today, Nathan decides not to head home straight away. He might feel better about himself after the chat with his awesome boss but does not feel like getting into a fight with Bernard again. That shit can the rest deal with. Besides, it's perfect weather for a run, and that's exactly what Nathan does. Boston's streets are his playground, and Nathan has been going through this area so many times that it's practically impossible for him to get lost. He knows it like the back of his hand, where to go if needing a quick escape or a good shortcut. This place is his domain and as long his family lives here, then they rule these streets. 

He runs down to the docks, easily avoiding the people working here, Nalini takes shape as a pony but only after five seconds has to take a smaller form; a big animal such as a horse drains him too quickly. So she chooses the form of a swallow and flies around her running human. Nathan watches her fly gracefully around, thinking of what Dell told him today, and he's happy to have that man as a friend; otherwise, he might still feel depressed about having a daemon that hasn't settled. Now with a more positive attitude again, Nathan once again finds himself disliking the very idea of Nalini only having a single form. There are so many of her forms he likes and doubts he can settle with only one form. So yeah, he can see what Dell meant he should be proud of having a daemon that hasn't settled. Better than being stuck with a daemon that only shows part of his personality.  
_'I wonder what daemon my father got?'_ Nathan wonders, would it be something ordinary like a dog, small feline or some sort of bird? Or would it be a more exotic animal like John got? Nathan sort of hopes it will be the latter, but which kind? That he has no idea.

He heads out to the inlet and on a route close to the waters Nalini uses this opportunity to change into a salmon, following her human in the water; occasionally leaping above the surface. Nathan has a lot of fun watching her. She does switch back to a dog when he leaves the route. Going back to the industry area, which is a hotspot for the other gangs but Nathan isn't worried. He knows he can outrun them all, besides, it's the quickest way home. Nalini suddenly stops, her ears pointed to something he cannot hear. "A gang is nearby." She speaks and looking a bit worried up to him, "And it sounds like they caught someone."

Nathan decides to check it out, if that someone turns out to be another gang member, then that person is on their own, but if it turns into an innocent bystander, then he might consider getting them out from that gang's clutches. Approaching a known spot for gangs to gather, a old shop with a pair that sells some questionable items and do not ask questions as long one got the cash. Nathan rarely buys anything in there, but his three oldest brothers shopped there a lot and thus the shop has become part of their territory, though loosen a lot up over the years since he and his remaining brothers got a life outside of gang cleaning.  
It has emboldened the other gangs and it seems one of them has decided to make a meeting there. Approaching the spot, Nathan notices this group of people belong to Lokk, a man around his oldest brother; Leon's age, and what he lacks in brain he makes up in brawn.  
Knowing this, Nathan is way more careful in his approach. This group of people is infamous for their violence and Lokk especially likes to beat innocent people. To get his powertrip and that makes that gang leader a dangerous foe.  
"We better leave." Nalini says, landing on his shoulder as a falcon. "If they catches us, we're dead." She got a point, Lokk's people will beat him to a pulp if they spot him without any of his brothers. His brothers and that gang got quite the rivalry, but instead of being the reasonable guy and listen to his daemon, Nathan walks closer as he is curious about what amuses these morons that much.

"Back off, I'm warning you!" A female and a familiar voice cries out among the gang members.

Nathan is startled to hear her again. _'What is she doing here in this part of town?'_ Rich people never come to this area, so why is she here? Now with no sense of his own safety, Nathan moves closer, determent to save the angel he saw at that rich man's house. Nalini turns into a calico cat, like him, ready for a fight.

The gang laughs at their victim's misery and the leader, Lokk: a roguish man with a mangy fox as his daemon steps out from the circle, grinning. "Ohh the little pup knows how to show some teeth." He taunts the young woman, who surprisingly has some nerve by not cowering in fear, but standing ready and even her daemon is growling and biting out after the other daemons. Lokk is not bothered though. "We can back off, but that depends on how much money you have underneath that fancy dress of yours, toots." He grabs her arm with relative ease, forcing the angel closer to him as if Lookk wants a kiss from her. The purple dressed young woman stares back at him in defiant but her gaze is waning, probably aware she cannot fight them all off on her own.

Nathan feels enraged by how that asshat is treating her; _'How dare he treat such a fine thing as her like this?!'_ and now wanting to teach these fuckers a lesson, he yells to the group: "Hey, what about you pick someone your own size moron!?"

The gang turns around, most of them recognize him as the youngest of the ruling gang of this area. Lokk does too, but unlike when he's around his brothers, this brute clearly does not feel intimidated by his appearance. "And who would that be?" The gang leader asks, still holding the beautiful young woman. "All I see is a pipsqueak and his freakish daemon!" 

The gang laughs at his taunt but Nathan puts a quick stop to it, he picks up a stone and hits Lokk square in the face. It hurt the guy enough for him to let go off the angel and drop in pain to the ground.  
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Nathan asks, grinning to the down leader, he is not afraid of this guy; especially not now when he can save a girl. "Couldn't hear you from how much you suck!" and he laughs mockingly at the fuming gang leader.

Not for long though, Lokk quickly gets back on his feet "Get him!" he command and the whole gang are after him.

"Oh crap!" Nathan takes the run for it, however, he cannot run too far away since he still needs to get the rich girl out from this.

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Not far away, in the darkness of an alleyway, a white wolf takes a seat beside a man obscured by the shadows. This white wolf daemon looks up to her human "Should we give him a hand?" she asks calmly. Her human makes a small handwave and with that, the wolf resume in merely watching this gang of people chases one very important to both of them. The speedy young man is not only staying one step ahead of his pursuers but also able to get a few hits in by throwing whatever rock he manages to pick up, dodging the other people fairly easily. "Sure got the footwork."

He nods in agreement and taking a drag of the cigarette, lighting slightly up his face, watching Nathan dodge some of these grunts. "Indeed and someone has been teaching him how to use his brain." He replies his daemon, noting himself that this is something the boy didn't have the last time he was in town. Back then, Nathan was more prone to do whatever came to mind, which often led to a trip to the hospital and something that really took a toll on his mother's budget. "I wonder who that could be?" He ponders, sure hopes it's not the man he has in mind. Already owe that toy-maker enough as it is.  
"Wouldn't surprise me if it was Dell." the wolf speaks calmly, "He does like to help people." That he does, but sometimes he wishes his friend would stay out of his business. 

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With enough distance from these morons, Nathan speeds up and runs between the not at all coordinated gang, making a few of them run into one another and right back to the stunned girl. "Let's go!" He grabs her arm and pulls her away from the fast approaching gang. She follows, much to his relief. However, just as they reach one of the shortcuts, a mangy fox appears and before Nalini can turn into a bird and fly away, the fox catches her by the neck, forcing the rabbit onto the ground. But the fox does not just pin her. No, she's biting her around the throat, something Nathan felt very clearly. He gasps at the sensation of something trying to block his windpipe and topples to the ground, struggling for air. The young woman and her daemon stop, but he does not want her to see what will happen next now that they caught him. "Go!" He gasps, waving her off. "G-Get out from here!"

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He tenses up from what has just happened and does not even bother by the miss taking the run for it. His entire focus is on the now trapped Nathan. He is hesitant to help, for if he does, then his cover will be blown. The wolf growls, ready to tear that fox off Nalini, then she stops, getting the scent of someone familiar. "The others are near." She tells him. Perfect timing. "Call them." he responds and she lets out a howl.  
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He heard the howl, but is way busier trying to get back up and attempt to fight off Lokk, but with the intense sensation of getting strangled, it's hard to even get through the first point. "Cheap shot...!" He wheezes at the gang leader. Paralyzing someone by daemon is really low in his eyes.

The gang leader kicks him in the stomach, sneering. "You should've stayed out from this, freak!" Another kick. "But no, you just had to play the hero!" Lokk goes for a second but is interrupted by a punch to the face, followed by some loud barking and the mangy fox yelps.  
The strangling sensation disappears.

"Hey, Lokk!" Dean's voice, Nathan looks up and sees it was his brother's coondog daemon who got the fox off Nalini and Bernard, who got Lokk off him, the former steps beside him, working as a sort of shield against the other gang leader. "Have you forgotten what happened the last time you dared to pick on any of us?!" Rachel steps closer to the sneering fox, but it's clear she's afraid of the much bigger coondog, which growl is much deeper and louder.

Nathan gets on his feet right as Bernard yells; "Fight one of us, and you fight us all!"

Ken appears from the alleyway, and one of the rare times looks pissed, "Only we are allowed to pick on our little brother." He speaks, though the words is only meant for this pack's ears. Nathan sends him a quick death stare but will give his brothers some slack; they did just save his ass.

Lokk backs away, he might be slow, but even he got enough brain to know that fighting all of them at once will be a ticket to the hospital.  
Now ready for round two, Nathan picks up a piece of wood that can work as a makeshift weapon and Nalini change into her cat form, hissing at the fox. Ken steps up beside the coondog's human, the bag on his side, which holds his spotted turtle daemon swings lightly at his sudden stop.

Bernard is more than ready to engage into a brawl, he cracks his fits, grinning devilishly and his wasp daemon flicks her wings in the same eagerness of a fight. "What it's going to be Lokk, the easy or the fun way." He calls to the redhead, and Nathan can easily see what Bernard wants. To be fair, Nathan wants to kick that guy's ass too. 

The other gang leader hesitates, clearly mad enough at Nathan's rescue mission to decide and stick around for a fight, well fine by him! The rest of Lokk's gang gathers around, which made their leader smirk—thinking that a few cheerleaders will give him the edge. "This is my turf now. You're nothing without your three founders!" He cries out, and to his gang; "Get them!" 

Bernard and Dean quickly retaliate by charging in and giving two of Lokk's people a punch they won't forget. Nathan dodges the one that came at him, but right as he's about to knock his teeth out with his weapon. Someone grabs the wood and before Nathan knows it, he's in a chokehold by Lokk: "Now where was I?" 

But Nathan and his daemon did not have in mind being the weakling that needs yet another saving from his older brothers.  
The fox jumps at her, but this time Nalini got a stronger shape and she jumps with claws out at the fox, plunging her claws deep into the neck while biting her face. The fox cries out in pain from being mauled by a hissing mad cat. Lokk yelps from the assault his daemon dealt with, which gives Nathan the opening he had hoped for. He kicks Lokk right over the leg, it did the trick. Getting out from Lokk's grip is easy enough and that guy can be the first to get a load of his makeshift weapon. Nathan hits him over the back with it, knocking Lokk to the ground. Before he can go for a second hit, one of his gang members gets up Nathan's face, forcing him to retreat. Before Lokk can grab him again, Ken got that moron away from him, and goes to deal with the gang leader, but right as Nathan does; another member punches him right over the head, almost knocking him out. Stunned and very much in pain, Nathan does not have the time to recover and get away from the upcoming kick. Didn't have to, for Bernard tackles that guy down and punches this tattoo filled guy hard in the stomach.

Not willing to sit this one out and looking to draw as much blood as the rest of his brothers, Nathan gets back up and joins his brothers fighting the opposite gang. Like Lokk's group, the brothers do not have much unity or tactic other than punch or kick everything not on their side. 

Nathan runs over to one of the other gang's boys and tackles him, stunning the one long enough for Dean to punch him in the head, knocking that person to the ground. One by one, the gang of Lokk has gotten enough and flees the area.  
"And stay the hell away from our area!" Bernard shouts at them, and with the other gang gone, dries away the blood from the split lip he received during the brawl. "Fuckers."

"You said—" His words rudely interrupted by Ken, who decided to whack him hard over the head. That fricking hurt! "What the hell man?!" Nathan demands, caress the now thumping from the hit back of his head. Why did he deserve that hit? Last Nathan checked, he did as much ass-kicking like the rest.

Ken crosses his arms, his usual laidback attitude has been replaced with a mild annoyance. "That's for making mom worry, you little shit." Ken explains and nodding to their former battlefield, "You be happy one of Lokk's member's wolf daemon started howling. Otherwise you would've been deadmeat."

Bernard nods in agreement. "Ma would've called the police if John hadn't stopped her— oh and she's making us babysit your ass when she sees your pathetic condition."

Nathan freezes at that, then smiles embarrassingly for this is a fucking embarrassment, more so if their mother is making bodyguards out of his brothers. Sometimes it's fricking hard to be the youngest... "How long have I been gone?" Nathan asks them, adding to Dean "and why couldn't Rachel track me?"

"Have you ever tried to track someone in a city? It's not that easy." Dean points out unamused. He lets out a groan and while brushing a hand through his short blond hair. "Next time, try not to be gone for five fricking hours— oh, and ma is not heating up your dinner." Nathan groans but that's what he gets being out this long.

"What the hell kept you this long?" Bernard asks annoyed, apparently the the fight with Look hasn't helped on his pent-up anger.

Before Nathan can reply, Ken steps over and starts touching the skin around the eye where he got punched. He steps away from him and snaps back at Bernard. "None of your business." To then glare at Ken as he really does not take a hint! "Cut it out!" Nathan slaps his brother's hand away. "I'm fine." but Ken does not look convinced. "It's just a bruise—" Right there, Ken pokes the spot and a sharp pain flashes over the skin. "Argh that hurts!" Nathan cries loudly and leaps away from the others, all staring at him amused. 

"Yeah it does, so next time;" Ken slaps him a few times on the sore eye, sending several jolts of pain over Nathan's face. "You let me take the hit."

Yeah, yeah, Nathan knows Ken prides himself on being the tank of the group. _'No wonder why he got a turtle for a daemon.'_  
Nathan grumbles to himself and shoots his brothers a death glare for laughing at his pain. "Shut up... I had it under control."

"Sure you did." Dean ruffles up his hair to annoy him further, "And while you're at it; be a little more stupid the next time you pick a fight with other gangs." Rachel looks disappointed at the cat-shaped Nalini, and she responses by hissing defiantly at the much bigger daemon.

Bernard and Ken grin at his torment, Nathan hates it when they gang up on him.  
Bernard nudges Ken in the side. "Yeah, Lokk might pack a mean punch, but he slower than you in the morning."  
Ken pushes him away for that remark, completely chill about the others laugher. Every one of them knows that if they do not get to the bathroom before Ken, they might as well give up as Ken can spend a full hour in the bathroom and will not speed up for anyone. Nathan and the others long learned that trying to force Ken to hurry up is out of the question. He might only be a year younger than him, but Ken can tank a lot of punches and return just as many.

Nathan, however has not learned to brush off insults as his closer in age brother. "His gang had caught a girl, alright." He retorts with crossed arms at the constant teasing, does not make it any better when they consider his anger amusing, but ignoring that in exchange for the reason he even dared to pick a fight alone. "Who knows what that bastard would've done if I haven't stepped in."

Two of his older brothers exchange a look with one another; what Bernard and Dean are thinking, Nathan has no idea. Dean turns to him, his expression soften, "I know we got an untold rule to fight for the helpless, but you shouldn't have done it." taking a step over to him. "you aren't strong like Leon." 

That statement pisses Nathan off, especially when Leon always had been so cool towards him, cared about his feelings, and Nathan looked up to the oldest of all his brothers. It sucked when he left home, made Nathan feel quite alone. "Oh yeah? Well, I think he would've been proud of what I did!" He retorts back and likes to remind his older brother. "I ain't a coward and I don't follow the leader like you do, Dean!"

Dean opens his mouth but instead waves his hand dismissively at him and walks slightly away with; "Whatever makes you feel better, runt." 

"Was she pretty?"

Turning to Bernard, he's leaning against the nearby wall with a goofy smile and his daemon for once calm. Nathan grins. "Yeah, the prettiest thing I've ever laid my eyes on."

"So how did she thank you? A little one-on-one?" Bernard winks, his grin widens when Ken starts laughing loudly. Dean rolls his eyes at the hint, and his coonhound daemon hides her face with a paw.

Didn't take Nathan long to know what Bernard asked about, "N-No! I told her to run when Lokk caught me." Angry but mostly embarrassed that Bernard thought he only did this to get in her pants— dress, whatever. Nathan does admit that he does fancy her, but being laid was the last thing on his mind when he went to help her. And the chance of seeing her again is very small, so no, Nathan doubts he got anything out from this other than knowing that she didn't get hurt by Lokk. As John often would say; 'you can't win them all.'

"You might see her again." Bernard "assures" him, but those words do not convince Nathan. Leaving the wall, his older brother claps him on the shoulder. "But there are easier ways to get laid." 

"I know that!" Nathan retorts, wishing his face didn't feel like it's burning.

The others laugh and the burning sense increases, but right as he's about to throw insults at them. Dean cuts him off, "We better get home." he puts a hand on his head, in a manner that reminds Nathan he's the smallest of the group. "Before Ma throws a fit that her little baby hasn't gotten home."

That's it! He hits Dean on the side. "Shut up! I'm not a baby!" Nathan retorts angrily, but all that got him is getting pushed over to the other wall.

"Sure acting like it." Ken grinningly retorts and he goes at him, and Ken blocks his fist aimed at his head.

"A little baby throwing a temper tantrum." Bernard laughs.

Now really wanting to show them, Nathan grabs a piece of wood and, thanks to his speed, gets Bernard right over the arm. Bernard let out a swear, proof that hit hurt. now his turn grinning. "Give me a bat and I would've broken your arm. Now, who's the baby?" 

Bernard makes a move to hit him but is stopped by Dean, definitely saving him from a solid beating. His third older brother snorts, "You still hit like a girl." and starts taking the lead. 

Ha! he got a sweet combat for that. "You tell that to cousin!" He calls back and for once, the two others are on his side and laughing at Bernard's winch of the reminder their cousin has one mean throwing arm.

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The group of brothers pass the alleyway where he's standing but all too busy throwing insults at one another to take notice of him.  
He trashes his cigarette, not bothering to turn around and face her. "You were lucky." 

She does not answer, can't hear anything of her being in a state of shock.  
Turning around, she does not show her state of mind; even her daemon is sitting calmly beside her. Not a surprise, people like her were trained to stay calm and collective even in the most stressful scenarios. "Did you get whatever you were searching for?" He asks, well aware she won't reveal what mission the big guys gave her.

"Yes," She replies, casting a single glance to the street where the group of brothers disappeared through before she focuses back on him. "That gang that caught me is working for the General Oblation Board." That takes him by surprise, the Church isn't known to hire low-class people. "They were the cause of the children disappearance here in Boston."

That is troubling, but not something he can investigate, got his own mission. One that might save what's left of them. "Unfortunately, I have a more pressing mission." He tells the young woman and begins to leave. Time is short and he has already wasted enough time.

"I know, oh, before you go." He stops and glances back to her. This time her daemon shows signs of uncertainty. The young woman is calm like any good infiltrator "Do you have any information about that young man? The one with the unusual daemon."

"It depends." He replies calmly while his mind is racing of what the big guys might think if they knew about Nathan's quirk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This chapter changed a lot from how I first wrote it, but I think getting a wider look into Nathan's life and sharing the story with Dell did turn out for the better. Still I would like to hear if you like this rewritten chapter or prefer the old one.  
> **  
>  You can find the old version of this chapter on my DeviantART page.  
> 


	4. The Resistance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Unlike the first version of this chapter, where it was Nathan's point of view, I have decided to change half of it over to Dell. It makes more sense considering he is around at practically every scene of this chapter.**

Like any other day, Dell did his morning routine while listening to the newscast on the radio. Like most other days, the news is about whatever the Church is up to, but Dell is more concerned about the lack of talk about people causing trouble. For others, it's a good sign, while for him, it is troubling. Without news of recent attacks, it means the attackers aren't around anymore.  
"Do you think it's as bad they said it was?" Naria asks him from the floor.  
Dell hesitates on the answer and eating his breakfast. He does start eating again but cannot bring himself to voice his worries that those stationed around this area might all be gone.  
Naira knows though, being his daemon, she is always part of his thoughts, but she does fortunately not speak further about the subject and does him the favor in turning off the radio.  
Eating in silence is better than listening to the news. Dell shouldn't get worried, but it's hard not to when so many of those out fighting have become his friends. Two of them especially, and he would never know if they— the phone call breaks the silence, Naria jumps and does a small run under the table. Annoyed that a phone startled him, Dell gets up and answers whoever is calling this early in the morning. "Dell here."

 _"Mr. Conagher."_ A male voice speaks in a business tone, instantly clue Dell in who this man might be calling for. _"My employer wishes to make a large commission from you and will pay handsomely for the work."_

Yeah, it sounds like a Magisterium bootlicker, most likely a Colonel wanting to get a few war zeppelins to impress the higher-ups. Naria grinds her teeth and would've done it on the caller if he has been here in person, but Dell keeps his voice leveled and void of his agitation that the Magisterium does not take a hint. "Certainly, what would your employer like? I have one that offers long travel in stock, or is he more into a larger ship that works as a second home?" He asks all business-like, well aware that's not what this man wants.

_"No, he was thinking about something with weapons and—"_

"Oh, then you got the wrong zeppelin engineer." Dell purposely interrupted the caller, hiding his smirk behind an apologetic voice. "I only build ships for commercial use, none fit for battle."

 _"Yes, you have mentioned that in the past"_ The man replies, now with a colder voice, a growl in the background can be heard. It sounds like the caller is getting just as agitated as Dell is about this old song and dance. _"But I am sure you can make an exception. My employee can pay you quite handsomely and knowing your family history—"_

"Sorry, but if you want a master engineer in weapons, you gotta ask Frank Conagher." Dell interrupts again, this time with a firmer voice. "I don't build such things." At least not for the Magisterium.

 _"I am sure we can—"_  
About there, Dell drops all politeness. "Look, it does not matter how many times you ask or how much money you got. I am not going to build any sort of battle zeppelin." He returns to his table and reaching for his unfinished breakfast. "Tell your boss my answer is no and will stay that way." A bite and when done chewing, Dell adds; "Unless the ship is commercial, then we can talk. If not, find another engineer." and with that, he ends the call.  
"Stubborn bastards." Naria remarks up to him, he nods in agreement, but that's just how it is when having a family history such as his. "Better finish up," His daemon tells him while stalking over to the table. "for I am about ready to bite the leg off the table!" Dell chuckles but does finish up and heads to work so to ease his anger. Can't have Naria do end up chewing something, and he has to repair it.

Working on the zeppelin helped his mood, push his negative thoughts about the call aside, and focus on doing something he likes; which is to build. Does not matter what it is; as long he can build, Dell is content. The sound of bell-chime and Dell turns, well aware it's Nathan as it's still too early for costumers. The young man appears at the door and Dell instantly can see that Nathan has gotten into a fight. His face is bruised and the kid is instinctually protecting his left side. "Looks like someone got rolled over by a truck." Naria remarks, and Dell walks over to check on these injuries. "How bad is it?" He asks this reckless young man.

Of course, Nathan tries to avoid the subject of how beaten up he really is. "I'm fine, nothing to worry about." Nathan smiles and makes a move to start working, but before he can, Dell intercepts him by getting in his way, and true to his nature, Nathan objects annoyed. "I told you I'm—" without asking, Dell checks the spot and a simple touch made Nathan jerk and cry out in pain. "Argh, that hurts!"

"Yeah, we can see how fine you are." Naria deadpans, which made Nathan's daemon disappear behind a barrel from embarrassment. The beaver looks up to him, "Better do something about it." Dell will do just that. "Sit." He commands Nathan sternly, ignoring the kid's immature groan and leaves to fetch a special essential oil he brought. It is good for bruised skin or strained muscles. With the bottle in hand, he returns to the now seated young man. "What in sam hill were you thinking boy?" He asks Nathan, harshly as this isn't the first time this kid has gotten into fights. This is however, the worst he has seen and whoever Nathan picked a fight with; sure gave him one hell of a beating. "You can't pick fights with whoever is pissing you off." He pours some of the oil onto a cloth Naria got for him and places it onto Nathan's bruised skin.

The young man jerks from the sudden cold this oil gives off but relaxes when the soothing sensation it causes is registered. "I got a reason this time." Nathan muses. Dell gives him a look and Nathan explains further, "Those guys were hurting someone else. I couldn't just stand by and watch."

No, he supposes Nathan wouldn't. People might shun him, but this young man still got one hell of a sense of justice. Dell locks eyes with Nathan for a moment before he breaks the sharp stare with a sigh. He can't criticize Nathan for this, he did do the right thing after all, but it almost cost him his ribs. "In that case, I won't say anything about your actions." He lets Nathan hold the cloth and leaves the young man so he can open up the shop. Out in the shop, he calls out to Nathan. "But I would prefer if you were a bit more careful in the future! At some point, your luck will run out!"

"I'll try to remember that the next time some asshole decides to torment a defenseless girl!" Nathan calls sarcastically back.

Dell rolls his eyes but is not really surprised by the reply; if he should describe Nathan in one word, it's cheeky.  
"Keep up the cheek and we'll make you work regardless the pain." He calls back and Dell chuckles at how that shut the kid up. "Wish it was that easy with his old man." He muses to himself, but apparently, it wasn't low enough.

"Wait... you know my father?" Nathan asks.

Naria lets out a small curse for the slipup, but guess now the cat is out of the bag; Dell reckons he can reveal enough to remind Nathan that only himself is holding him back. "Yeah, I know him." He replies and resuming his work on the zeppelin frame. "We go way back."

"Why did you never tell me about him?"

"He asked me not to." and knowing the question would come, Dell adds to the young man with a smile. "He was afraid stories about him would make you think you lived in his shadow."  
With Naria making the knowing remark. "Doesn't that sound familiar?"

Nathan drops his head, but that faint smile does not go unnoticed for Dell, "Yeah, it does." and as Nathan looks back up, the young man has a small frown on his forehead. "So, you owe him? Is that's why you let me get this job even though I don't know frick about machines?"

Of course, he would think it like that, and maybe it's partly true. Dell did accept Nathan as his helper because he's his friend's son. But it has nothing to do with favors. "He only asked me to look out for you, not offering you a job." Dell replies the young man, "In fact," he starts to laugh about the last talk he had to Nathan's father. "He's most likely going to think he owes me for letting you have this job." and eyeing his friend's son. "He has this boring viewpoint that every kind gesture should be reimbursed. But he tends to forget I'm doing this for you, not for him." 

"Oh." is all Nathan can say about this— for about five seconds. "What can you tell me about him? How did you meet?"

Dell chuckles but thinks he opened this can of worms enough for today. "Sorry kid, but with the job your old man is doing. Knowing less about him is safer." Nathan is understandably disappointed about the answer, but it just as it has to be. "There's a reason why he left." 

"To do this dangerous job?"

"To protect his family." Dell corrects him, and that seems to hit Nathan from how his eyes wide from that reply. Before he can say more about the subject, the doorbell to the shop chines; signing he got a customer. Dell gives Nathan a shrug and leaves to service his customer.  
Out in the shop, a familiar face meets him. "Ah, miss Tyrell." He greets this young woman, while Naria is watching the white dog suspiciously, which he calmly ignores. "Here to see the progress of the zeppelin?" Dell asks all business-like, hiding his suspicion. He knows the real reason she's here and it's not for Mr. Loke zeppelin commission; that's just a coverup. She really here to keep an eye on him. The resistance has been wary of him ever since he unofficial started supporting them. Of course, they have their reasons with the parents he got. 

"No, I'm here for personal business." She replies and after a small moment of silence. "I've heard the one who helped me last night works here." Her daemon turns his gaze to the door leading into the workshop. Naira warily steps between him and the door. 

So she's the one Nathan risked his skin for, well, kid sure got the heart the right place. Brain on the other hand... "Here to check on his work ethic?" He asks and does worry if the resistance finds Nathan as a possible member. Doubt his old man would be happy about that.

"Relax Dell," She assures him with that collective confidence that is second nature for her and her dog daemon shows the same by sitting down, not at all bothered by his daemon's intense staring. "I simply wish to thank him for having gotten me out of a sticky situation."

Yeah, Dell does not believe that for a second. Miss 'Tyrell' is too loyal for the resistance to do anything outside their best interest. But since she's being (as far as he knows) direct to why she's here. Dell supposes it wouldn't hurt, but he will keep a sharp ear on her. He leaves the desk and leads her into the workshop, "He's in here." which straight away catches Nathan's attention. Young man's eyes widened in recognition and it seems he fancy her from how Nalini straightens herself up, trying to look regal in her rabbit form.

Miss Tyrell before confident posture, changes into a somewhat nervous approach, and Dell can't honestly say if it's an act or if she's sincere, for even her daemon is a brilliant actor. "I never got to thank you for saving me." She says, giving Nathan a small smile. "So... thank you."

Dell heads over to his work, but makes sure he can hear their conversation in case she tries to recruit him.  
"It's nothing." Nathan brushes her off, "I beat knuckleheads like them for—" the sudden cut of his bragging made Dell turn to where they are. Nathan is hunched from his injured side.

"He tried to look tough, didn't work." Naria whispers to him. Under his goggles, Dell rolls his eyes, "Clearly" and resumes work.

"You're hurt." Miss Tyrell points out in a sad voice. "Ugh. I shouldn't have gone there without support!" This catches Dell's attention. It seems she really got herself into something she couldn't get out of. Maybe this thank is legit. "Anyway, thank you for risking your own safety for me, considering I was ignoring you the last time we met." Dell has to stifle down a small chuckle from that remark.

"Hey, I don't blame ya. It's not like an upper-class daughter would ever give a—"

"oh, I'm not Mr. Loke's daughter, just one of his servants."  
This is all just an act, Dell knows this young woman got herself hired by Lenard Loke to use that as her cover while doing her business for the resistance. 

"Oh okay, so..." A moment of silence, "what were you doing downtown?" Nathan asks her and Dell will admit that he's curious about that as well, but he stays quiet and pretends to be busy with his work.

"It's embarrassing really." Dell turns to check, Miss Tyrell looks embarrassed but her daemon is calmly watching Nalini trying to impress him by changing into a dog herself. "I was sent out to buy a special fabric for the lady but ended up getting lost." Miss Tyrell lets out a small laugh. "Still new to this part of the city."

"I can show you around if you like." Nathan offers, giving her a toothy smil.e "I know pretty much every street." 

From how she returns the smile with a sweet one, Dell realizes she wanted him to offer her this. She was trying to use Nathan. Can't say he's surprised, but still... "Thanks, I would feel a lot safer." Nathan beams but is quickly replaced with one of horror when Miss Tyrell turns her gaze down to his daemon with; "Quite the unusual daemon you have."

"There's nothing wrong with me; it's just how I am!" Nathan exclaims so quickly that only a fool wouldn't know that people have gotten scared about his ability in the past.

She looks up to him, a small frown of confusion but also got a knowing look in her green eyes. "People are scared of you, aren't they?"

Nathan drops his head, "yeah..." and that's where he seems to realize her indifference about Nalini. "You're not scared?"

Which she returns with a smile, "Should I?" Again Dell can see Miss Tyrell is doing this to get closer to Nathan. He does not like it, but cutting in only will make the young man ask questions he cannot answer. One look at him, and she, fortunately, gets the hint that she's pushing his hospitality. "I better get going. Mrs. Loke is expecting me to babysit while she and her husband are out." and she starts to leave, does stop near the door, where she smiles back to the smitten Nathan. "I will see you soon again?"

"Yeah, sure." Nathan replies and with her gone, he looks at Dell with a wide victory smile. Dell returns it faintly but knows that this resistance infiltrator is not interested in forming a legit relationship with Nathan. He's nothing but an asset to her, but Dell decides to keep that to himself, having no wish to break Nathan's bobble unless she starts using him too often.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Right as Dell asked him to pack up for closing, the bell at the shop chimes, making both him and Dell turn to the door. Instead of waiting for Dell to come to them, this newly arrived strolls into the workshop. That action catches Nathan's attention. Unlike most customers who are dressed in expensive clothing, this guy is dressed in awful casual clothing. A leather-brown shirt and darker brown pants, and the only thing that might catch people's eye are what Nathan thinks is a cowboy hat, but it's really hard to tell. This new arrived could easily have been mistaken for a shipyard worker with that weatherworn and tan skin from having been outside most of the time, but he does not get the built. Most people at the shipyard a muscular, like Dell. This guy is lanky like him. Nothing special about this guy, could easily be mistaken for a local– if it wasn't for his daemon.  
It's a falcon of some sort, not something seen by the city folks. Nathan has only seen such a bird in books but never as a daemon shape. She does not look like the falcon in the book, which was a bluish color. This bird of prey is orange with black spots all over the body. It really got his interest and wonder; _'What personality gives someone a falcon as their daemon?'_ and knew he would soon find out. 

For it looks like this intruder is someone Dell knows as he greets the man with the red falcon like a friend.  
"Long time no see Down Under" Dell shakes hand with this weather-worn and lanky man, who replies chuckling: "Sure has, but it seems I haven't missed much."

"Oh hardy hah." Naria responses back, and Nathan notices straight away that this new arrived is used to Dell's daemon's lack of care about that social norm. "At least we're not the one who returns with scars by each visit."

The man barks a laugh at that combat; his falcon daemon casts Naria one look before turning her gaze to him. For such a small bird, that orange falcon sure got one intense stare. Nalini shift, uncomfortable by the stare the other daemon sends their way, all the while unmoving on the man's shoulder. "Each got a story there, mate." Nathan perks up; he recognizes the dialect and realizes this guy must also be from the Kingdom of Auister like his mother's side of the family. Guess that makes sense why he didn't recognize the daemon's animal shape. She must've taken a form from a bird of prey found in the Kingdom of Auister. People's daemons tend to take shape from their home country.  
The man from Auister learns up against the worktable in a relaxed manner. "How has work been faring?"

Dell shrugs, "The usual, the rich think I'll give them more than they pay, and the soldiers keep pestering me for a contract; you know how it is." He replies as if this is a daily headache. Nathan will admit he has never paid much attention when his boss talks to his customers as it's really not his business. The new arrived nods he does indeed. Dell utterly abandons his work (which is a rare sight), clearly more interested in speaking with this friend of his. "How's your work been going?"

The man grabs the tip of his hat with a sigh, hiding his eyes underneath it. "It's been bloody hard. The hunts have been shit and lately, it feels more like it's hunting us than the other way around."

"So you're a hunter?" Nathan asks, unable to keep his mouth shut anymore. The man eyes him and like his daemon, those brown orbs are sharp and Nathan doubts much can avoid that gaze. The man simply nods and Nathan's curiosity raises. "Cool, what are you hunting?" Rright about there, Nathan notices that this guy's hat got large teeth around the crown, even has a necklace of the same teeth. His best guess of what animal these teeth come from. "Crocodiles?"

"Among other things." The man replies, he eyes Dell, "Though what I have been hunting lately really likes to tear the party apart."

Not sure what that meant, only it made Dell frown in a way Nathan has never seen him do before.  
"It sounds bad." Dell takes a seat and Naria find a spot at his feet; she's fiddling with something. "Anything I can do? Perhaps even the odds against this beast you're hunting down."

The man shifts on his feet, "Maybe..." he muses and glances over to him. Nathan notices suspicious in the man's eyes and he has no idea why. The man turns back to his boss, giving him a look Nathan has no idea the meaning of.

"Best you head home now." Dell speaks, glancing at him. 

Knowing something is going on, Nathan hesitates, but a look from his boss, he grabs his jacket and leaves the workshop.  
"Let's hear what they got to say." Nalini suggests, and Nathan do just that. He heads over to the front door, opens and closes it as if he was leaving, then waits. He hears Dell say: "How bad are things? I haven't heard about any attacks these past months." Sign they fell for it and as quietly as he could, Nathan sneaks over to the desk. It will allow him to hear the conversation and give him a decent hiding place in case the two got the idea to leave.

"It's worse," The man sighs. "they have wiped out every team stationed here in New France."

"Does that mean...?" Dell asks hesitantly, and Nathan realizes his boss is scared of whatever answer the man will give him.

A moment of silence, "They are all dead. We found Scottie, but sadly he didn't survive his wounds."

"What about Kreel? Surely she must've slipped away."

"Yeah, Spook always said she was bloody good at hiding in plain sight." The man of Austier seemly admitted, but Nathan did not like the tone of his voice, and even though he didn't know the Kreel, he gets the dreadful sense that she got killed too. "But I don't think she got away this time. The whole team got turned into a bonfire." Nathan's eyes wide at what he just heard, realizing that this guy most likely wasn't talking about an animal hunting trip. "I have been trying to call for possible survivors, but those bastards have found and cut our communication."

"Does that mean the Elite...?"

"I don't think the Church got them or found Headquarters." The man replied and this time, he sounds very confident about it. "Only found our communication towers. Which means getting in contact with anyone long distance is out of the window."

What is this? Some kind of group of soldiers? Nathan is not sure and it's not like he can ask his boss and this other guy.  
"Do you know how they found the teams?" Dell asks after a moment of silence. "You always said they moved around a lot, and those that don't have reinforced bases. They all had ways to protect themselves."

"You got that right. But it seems like they got themselves a new alethiomist— which is one hell of a chance. Finding people able to read those things are rare." another sigh from the man. "And this one is bloody good at the job..."

"What do you mean?" Dell asks and Nathan would like to know too, even though he does not know half what the man from Auister said.

"Usually, it would take an Alethiomist week to decipher the alethiometer message, and it would give most teams plenty of time to relocate, though halt any major attacks as they require weeks of planning. But this new reader." A moment of silence before the man speaks again. "They are bloody good at their job."

"How many teams are left?"

"Not a bloody clue, all I know that the teams Spook and I helped out are all gone." A tired sigh, one Nathan has heard from his mother when she hears certain news from the radio. "We have lost a lot of good people in such a short time..."

"Anything I can do?" Dell asks quietly. "I may have something that can–"

"No, keep your head down." The man stops Dell in a stern tone. "The Resistance might need your skills, but it's too dangerous for you getting into the fight." Resistance? Does that mean this guy and Dell are part of the terrorists the radio sometimes talk about? No, no, that can't be right. None of them looks like trigger-happy people who want to destroy anything on their path. "I'm only here to update you on the latest events before going after Spook." Who the hell is this Spook?

"You sure I can't persuade you to stay a little while?" Dell asks, sounding like he really would like the company and someone he can talk openly with. "I'm sure, Nathan's old man can do without you babysitting him for a few more hours." Wait what?! Spook is his father?! Nalini changes into a rabbit, and Nathan has to hold her down before she starts running around from this startling revelation.

Good thing too, for the man with the crocodile teeth lets out a bark of a laugher at what Dell said. "Don't let him hear you say that." A moment of silence. "Ah what the hell, been long I last rested in a real bed."

"Knowing you Down Under," By the sounds of it, Dell is closing up shop. Oh uh... "you can sleep wherever, as long you got the hat." Again the man laughs. After a moment, the two head to the main door. "You're lucky; I bought a nice steak at the marked yesterday."

"Better than a proper bed." The door closes, making it hard to hear the last of that conversation, but it did clue him in that they are leaving the area.

Nathan waits a while before he leaves his hiding spot. Nalini takes a swallow form and flies over to the alarm box. "You got three minutes before it starts blaring." She warns him and Nathan hurries over to the front door, but as expected, it's locked. Good thing he always carries a lockpick for such a situation. It takes a bit longer than wanted, but pick it he did and before closing, Nathan makes sure the door locks again. When out, he hurries away from the shop.

The trip back home allowed him time to think and Nathan got many thoughts from what he heard. "I don't know Dell at all." He admits quietly to his daemon, who nods in agreement. From how Dell excluded him and how secretive they both were when he was around, it's clear this is not something he should speak about at home. He doubts his brothers would believe him that his father and boss are part of the terrorists who have for decades harassing the Church and causing discord in society. Nathan never would've thought that Dell was part of them, but he was wrong by what he heard, and then there was the part about his father, like Dell and that man, also part of the terrorists. Nathan wants to ask his mother more about it, but from how Dell had shut that conversation down, it seems this is not a topic he can take up with others, not even his mother. Well not with his brothers around, at least.

"Maybe if we play it smart, Dell might slip up again and tell us more." Nalini suggests and Nathan likes that idea, but he also has to be careful not to reveal he has been eavesdropping on him and that other man.  
Nalini takes her dog form, wagging her tail from the excitement he felt of tricking their boss into telling them more about his father. "Let's wait for a day or so." Yeah, perhaps that would be best. Who knows, maybe Dell will reveal what form his old man's daemon has.  
Even though it is rather late, it's still early autumn and the winter darkness hasn't yet come, so the sun is still up and allowing Nathan to see the streets of his home city instead of relying on the street lamps he has to during winter. Still cold though, but every city located near the Atlantic inlet has to deal with the cold weather the waters bring with it.

Nathan decides to quickly stop at a shop and buy himself a snack with the money he earns at Dell, and munches it down the moment he leaves said shop, well aware he won't get to enjoy it back home without one of his brothers being an ass and trying to take it from him.  
He walks while eating his snack and does not really pay his surroundings much attention. He has been walking down this street ever since he was ten and knows what to look out for.  
Right as Nathan trots over to a trashcan for what remains of his now eaten snack, Nalini suddenly starts growling. He turns and spots Lokk and a few of his gang members. The leader smirks at him as if he's walked into their domain or something but this street is part of his gang's turf. Nathan smart enough to know that trying to fight these three alone and in the condition he's in is a foolish idea. "There's not far home; we can get the others." Nalini voices, he agrees with her, turns to speed off but right as he does, someone that looks a lot mangier that Lokk's daemon is at his face and before he can do anything, the man puts him into a headlock and forces a cloth against his mouth. Nathan of course struggles, but only a few inhales of the cloth's fumes and the world go dark.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The runt drops to the ground and that freakish demon turns docile in reaction to her human's passing out. Lokk smirks at this victory, maybe that gang of brothers won the battle, but he will win the war. Starting by removing one of them and get a nice sum of money for it. He walks over to the man who took the runt out and expectantly stretched his hand out. 

This mangy man with a raccoon for a daemon looks like he wants to deny the pay, but Lokk is used to that and a sign, his two members quietly surround the man. "You know the deal." he tells the man. 

The lesser Magisterium man glances at them, and his raccoon gets a bit nervous but it does the trick. "Better be worth it..." The man grumbles and throws a nice sized bag over to him. Lokk catches it and cannot stop grinning from the weight he feels from the bag. He would've done this ages ago if he knew how much that freak was worth. "He will," and a nod to his members, Lokk leaves, calling after the man; "You know how to get me if you want more brats!" which has turned into an excellent part time job.

Lokk and his gang celebrated with the money they got for Nathan's capture and hadn't much care they have once again removed someone from their family. Causing endless distress to his family that wouldn't know that their brother and son got taken by people, the children and those gangs living in the area have come to call the Catchers. And those people who hasn't been affected: Rich or strong supporters of the Church, all blissfully unaware about those captured by this branch of the Magisterium, could suffer a fate worse than death.

But even if these people heard how many of the lower class had lost a child to these illusive Catchers, they wouldn't care, nor that yet another mother and four of her sons would search the city far and wide in search for their son and younger brother but destined to fail in finding him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I thought it was best that Nathan shouldn't be included in the talk about the Resistance. From how I have made future chapters, people of that organization survives by being vigilant to none members. Even if that person is offspring to one of the members. It did allow me to make the conversation between Dell and Sniper much more open than I did last time.**


	5. Intruder alert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I would like to shift a lot more between the character perspective instead of only relying on Nathan's point of view. So in this chapter, I want it to be Sniper focused. It will allow me to expand on his character a bit more and perhaps show more of the man behind the scope.**

Even after all these years, Lawrence is still befuddled about how he and Dell became close friends. Yeah, that mission sure gave them a good kickstart, but he has been on many traumatic missions throughout the years, and Dell joining them for the ride wasn't unusual either. Such a thing is mostly how he and Spook picked up new members, so it was more of a surprise that Dell decided to stick to the sidelines in this battle. Lawrence understands, though, unlike him, Dell will be recognized by a lot of people inside the Magisterium and the moment he throws his ass out on the battlefield (if he ever does), then he got one hell of a target on his back. If Dell ever does take on the uniform, Lawrence will keep his back safe; that what friends do, after all. Stepping inside his Texan friend's home, "At least your house has changed." Lawrence remarks after have done a quick scan of his new environment. The furniture is the same, but they have changed location to give space to... whatever that honk of metal is supposed to be. Lawrence has never been good at machines, he knows how to use his gun and control an airship, but that's it. Figures Dell has the same when it comes to his passion for hunting out in the wilds, and Lawrence figures his friend most likely wouldn't survive a day in the bush. 

"Don't get used to it. I will return the couch to its old place when I'm done." Dell replies in the same way he always does when Lawrence teases him for his stagnate tendencies, which is the opposite for this hunter. He does not thrive  
if staying in the same place for too long. 

Their natures clash hard and yet, somehow, they click. "Might think a stranger lived here otherwise." Lawrence grins, and with the jacket off, he plums onto the couch. Here he notices something that wasn't here the last he was in Boston. A piece of art, out of special clay, waving around itself as if the creator has managed to freeze a small whirlpool. Lawrence recognizes the style straight away. "Has Lena been in town?" He asks, for he does not recall her telling him she has shown off her art here in Boston. 

"Yeah," Dell's voice replies from his open kitchen. "only a quick visit , though. Figure they were simply going through Boston." 

Probably, Lena prefers sleeping in a hotel than the crap trailer her producer proclaims is good enough for her. Just thinking about it pisses Lawrence off. _'He better have heard my warning. Otherwise, I might have to punch his teeth out.'_ But that man is a wuss, and a good threat always get that type of people moving. Especially when that man knows Lawrence doesn't bluff. Never been good at it, so why bother? "What was the occasion she gave you this?" Lawrence asks, gesturing at the art. 

"Birthday."

Ah, that makes sense. Lena has always been generous to those close to them. More so when she knows that giving birthday presents has never really been his thing. Lawrence prefers giving gifts when he finds something of use to said person, instead of waiting for the right day and get them something bogus. But even with this style, finding a gift to Dell has always been challenging. So Lawrence mostly tracks down stuff that links to Texan, well aware his friend is proud of his home country. "Lena's always one step ahead of me." He grins, but since he's here and found something Dell might like. "On my way here, I saw some fine cows on–"

"No, don't even think about it!" Dell stops him but soon laughs, so much that he starts coughing. At least he didn't drop any of the food. "I don't want you to haul a cow head inside my house." Lawrence sends him a look, and his friend begrudgingly admits. "...No matter how much it would fit the esthetic."  
He chuckles at that last sentence; a cow head would fit, but Dell still got a weak stomach when it  
comes to hunting trophies and Lawrence doubts he can drag a cow on his own. "You could get a lot of nice steaks out of it." Man's daemon remarks and now exasperated, the Texan exclaims. "I said no, dammit!" 

Lawrence can't stop himself from laughing. It's always fun to hear Dell argue against his much more mischievous side. Dell's daemon indeed reveals that this Texan is not as innocent as he leads people to believe. Composing himself, he tells the currently glaring man. "Alright, I drop it." 

"Good." A moment of silence between them. "Do you got enough food on the ship?" 

His daemon, Laraine, shift position on his shoulder and with a voice just as sharp as her eyes. "We ran out of spices, and the water tank could use some cleaning." She states out, direct like always. Spices he could live without, Lawrence does not mind eating the canned food just as it is. Antoine on the other hand... yeah, best to get that unless he wants to listen to the guy's constant whining. "If you have some spices to spare," but water is by far the most important. They can't rely on getting rainwater right as they need it. That tank has to be clean. "and the water tank needs cleaning."

"You can check the cabin," Dell points at said spot. "for spices you want. As for the tank," he turns around the meat, "I reckon I still got a bottle of disinfectant. Check my storage."

A nod, and Lawrence gets up from the couch and heads to the small storage room Dell has in the house. He has been here several times and knows more or less where everything should be. Besides, if he has trouble finding something inside this filled up the room, Laraine is most likely to spot it. No need for her sharp gaze this time around, Lawrence finds the bottle in a basket on the floor. Shaking it lightly, it feels like about half of the content is left. More than enough for the tank. "You got a half bottle, mate." He calls over to Dell.

"Go ahead and take it. I can always get another one." His friend calls back. Lawrence puts the bottle in the bag, something all members quickly figure out to have. One never knows if they find something of use when on a mission. Granted, Lawrence isn't on a mission but still useful to have a bag. The sound of a smaller basket getting placed on the wooded half-wall makes Lawrence turn around. Dell has put his basket of spices, an invitation to rummage through it. Lawrence does, and not wanting to rob the Texan for all his spices, he takes those he knows Antoine likes on his food. With those in the bag as well, "Need any help with the food Truckie?" He asks out of politeness. 

"I got it." 

In that case, Lawrence slumps back down on the couch and takes a power nap. A habit he got after have been both the hunter and the hunted in the line of work he started. A full night sleep is a luxury for someone like him. So Lawrence learned to get some Z's whenever he can, never know when it's time for action and in his line of work, a tired mind and body can very well be a death sentence. It took some training, but Laraine is able to stay awake during these power naps, making it harder for any threat to get the jump on him; which has come in handy several times during his career. But since he's in Dell's home, a place for safety, his nankeen kestrel daemon dowses off as well.

It only took Lawrence a moment to get himself moving when Dell woke him about an hour later. He gets a plate, and both take a seat at the table, and most people would probably have been overjoyed to get a nicely cooked steak, but Lawrence has never been picky with what he eats. So it rarely mattered if it was canned food, some animal he hunted or a homecooked meal; it is all food for him. The only difference is how he got it, this time; by a friend's hand. "Thanks, mate." Lawrence smiles at Dell and starts digging in. His friend does the same and they eat in silence, something Lawrence does not mind one bit. It does not mean he likes utter silence, which makes him uneasy, but this kind of silence, able to hear one's surroundings. That's what Lawrence prefers, it makes it harder to  
get snuck up on. While eating, Laraine preens herself, which she only does when he feels safe and when done, his little sharp daemon goes back to napping. 

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do?" Dell breaks the silence, which snaps Laraine back awake. The Texan's voice had low as if afraid someone might be eavesdropping on them, which is unlikely. Lawrence eyes the shorter man and even with his scarce people reading ability, it's clear Dell is troubled about what is going on with the resistance. "I might have something in storage that can help the remaining teams."

Man got the heart the right place, and Lawrence is thankful Dell is no longer the complacent man he and Antoine met all those years ago. But he thinks most people would've made that choice of action if they saw what they witness inside that building. Lawrence knows Dell is wary, perhaps a little afraid to fully commit to the resistance, considering his family is strong loyalists to the Church. "Maybe." He replies Dell, carefully with his next words. It's not that he does not trust Dell, but Lawrence has been with Team Fortress for so long that the rules have been drilled into his mind so hard that it's hard to ignore them. One of these rules is to be constantly vigilant in how much one should share information with civilians– people like Dell. That rule is in constant conflict with his sense of loyalty to those close to him. "If you got something you want to share with the rest, I will gladly take them with me." He decides to say, figuring it will be a decent compromise between the two loyalist views of both sides.

Dell nods, "I got a few." silence. "Do you think the team in Mexico is still alive?" 

"I like to think so." Lawrence replies. Antoine has gone to warn them of this danger, but if it worked or not. Lawrence would only know when he resumes the pursuit for his partner. And speaking of partnership, "Wasn't it that team's Engineer who helped you construct the signals in our uniforms?" Dell nods that he indeed got it correct. In the resistance eyes, that was a new invention, but for Lawrence, that signal has become such a big part of the resistance that he can barely believe he lived without it for such a long time. He does not really know how it fully works, only that the portable sentry guns Dell gave the resistance won't shoot at them. It has been incredibly useful and blessed them– especially the Engineers— a much needed edge on the battlefield. 

Dell plays a bit with his food; then while cutting a piece off the meat. "If she's still alive, can you set us up again?" Lawrence raises a brow at this request, though it's not unusual. He has created a radio connection between the two in the past. "I got a few ideas but could use her input." He nods he will do that. The Engineer stationed with the team in Mexico might not be as smart as Dell, but she sure knows how to work with radio waves and it's clear Dell greatly respects her for that. 

Every female fighting for the resistance earns a lot of respect; unlike the males, the women have to deal with a lot more of the Church's bigotry. For so long, it has been custom that women should stick to small jobs such as being a clerk or assistance, but mostly be a housewife, the caretaker of children, and an unconditional supporter of whoever decided to marry her. Women's opinion in the Church's  
world matters little and those who wanted to change that through Team Fortress are putting themselves in more danger than any of the men. In Lawrence's eyes,  
women such as that Engineer and Kreel, are/were incredibly brave. "I'll be sure doing that when I find them." Lawrence promises and can't help but wonder how Lena's life would've been if he hadn't become her partner. Perhaps her parents would've gotten their way and made Lena believe she was as fragile as they thought. But he knew better, Lena is one strong sheila. She knows what she wants and that's why he loves her. 

"Thanks, partner." Dell smiles and after a moment of silence between them. "What's your take about his kid?" 

It's his daemon that voices these thoughts. "The meeting with him was too short." andLawrence will honestly admit, "I didn't get a proper impression." but what he did learn through this short meeting. "You haven't told him." It was clear Antoine's boy didn't know who he was nor what his job really was about. Otherwise, Nathan would've known that he didn't spend all his working hours hunting animals, well, those not walking on four legs. 

Dell hesitates but after have put down his fork, he admits slowly. "I agree with Antoine on that one. Nathan should know as little as possible."

He can understand, partly because neither of them knows if Nathan support Team Fortress, but also if the kid can keep his mouth shut about it. Yet parts of Lawrence has trouble accepting how Spook is intentionally shunning his family away, it's so contrasting to— A loud buzzing cuts off Lawrence's thoughts, and it came so suddenly that it startled him enough to make him jump. Laraine lets out a  
screech and starts flapping around the room, trying desperately to spot the source of this perceived danger.  
"What the bloody hell is that for?" Lawrence asks, turning to Dell for information on why that alarm is blaring. He fears the worst from the expression of horror on the Texan's face has.

"Someone is in the factory," Dell replies and abandons his food, running over to where the jackets are. "It's where I have all the weapons to the resistance."

"Ah, bugger..." Lawrence swears under his breath and leaves the food as well; his daemon flies over and returns onto his shoulder. Lawrence reaches out for his jacket as well, and with it on, check the ammunition of his submachine gun. He got a full magazine, but Lawrence always got his kukri with him in case he runs out. "I'm coming with you."

"'Predicate it, cus Dell doesn't know how to aim." Naira remarks up to him and runs out from the open the moment Dell opens for it. Before following her, the Texan takes a simple gun from the nearby shelf.

Hearing that, "You're lucky, I decided to pay you a visit." Lawrence remarks, not sure how this would've turned out if Dell had to protect his workshop on his  
own. Dell nods in agreement, and as ready as they now can be on such short notice, they jump into Dell's truck and the Texan drives them both towards the factory. Approaching the spot, Lawrence tells Dell, "Turn off the lights." the man does and when noticing a truck with the Magisterium logo outside the factory. "Piss... okay, we're getting off here." Barely have Dell turned off the truck before this hunter jumps out. Sniper is not going to take any chances now that he knows they are against Magiserium soldiers. The moment Dell is at his side, "Follow my lead and don't get reckless." Sniper tells the man quietly. The last thing he's going to need is Dell thinking he can scare these  
intruders out with some fancy machine. When sure Dell got it, he starts sneaking closer to the truck; Laraine takes to the sky, scouting the path ahead. They reach the small factory, and it's close enough to see that this truck is meant to transport supplies, not soldiers. _'Hopefully we only got five men in there.'_ and when Laraine returns to him, she reports: "They are all inside. Four men, one of them down from sentry gun." Good to know, that gives them a better chance of survival. 

"They must've triggered the mini sentry." Dell whispers, Sniper eyes him and the engineer explains in a worried tone. "It's located near the stash."

This brings the question: "How many people know about your alliance to Team Fortress?" The worst-case in Sniper's mind, they have a traitor among them. One they have to take care of as quickly as possible. 

It's hard thanks to the darkness, but there's no need, "Only you and Antoine knows. I haven't told anyone else." Dell's voice reveals he is greatly troubled by what is going on. 

What if they don't know about the stash? "Didn't you mention the Magisterium has been trying to hire you?" Sniper asks and with the history of Dell's outstanding expertise in mechanics. "What if they want to take your inventions after your relentless declines?"

"Might be..." Dell muses, but he does not sound so sure. 

He doesn't either, but Sniper prays that's the case. If the Magisterium finds out Dell has supported the resistance, they will either take him capture or kill him on sight. Either way, it would be bad. He signs Dell to follow, and like any other time when sneaking up on his prey, Sniper makes each of his steps as light as possible. Dell is not as stealthy as him, but hopefully, the soldiers won't hear him. Inside the shop, they use the showcased zeppelins for cover and reaching the door, Sniper removes the safety of his submachine and quickly learns his back to the wall. Voices make him stop right at the entrance. 

"Holy shit, I hadn't expected a sentry gun as security." One of the soldiers speaks, he sounds close to the door.  
The one who got shot by the sentry gun is still alive, the breathing is ragged, but if they tend the wounds and get the guy to a hospital, he might survive. "Thing came out of nowhere. I thought you said he only built zeppelins."

He smirks that people might think Dell harmless, but if they listen to Naira long enough, people would know he can be dangerous and creatively deadly when he wants to hurt someone. He tenses up by the sound of a gun, and the smirk is instantly gone. The whimpering of the wounded has stopped. _'Sounds like they rather want to rid the weak link than waste time saving him'_ Sniper thinks to himself and can't say he's surprised by this lack of interest in their fellow soldiers. 

"He was dead anyway." The shooter says like shooting someone is like throwing out worthless trash. Their apathy for the fellow soldier is one of the things that makes a Magisterium soldier dangerous. "Keep an eye out. I don't want to waste any more bullets."

"...Never thought he had it in him." The one at the door muses, but by the sound of it; he is leaving his spot.

"I have shot a lot of people." The shooter retorts.

"Not you fool." The former doorman replies. "I mean this guy; Conagher. I always thought he was a wuss. He always declined the Captain's offers, gave some lousy excuse that he build zeppelin for personal transport, not war machines."

"I call that bullshit." One further away spoke, he got a gruff voice as if he got sand down the throat. "He clearly knows how to make weapons from that sentry gun that just shot Elias. Of someone who can make ships out of scrap metal, he's no genius. Only a fool would turn the Magisterium down."

Lawrence did not like the sound of that. Dell must've gotten a bigger backlash by leaving the Chuch than he ever revealed, and it seems that his family name– one well known among the Church– can't him safe anymore. It looks like the Magisterium took Dell's leaving personal and has finally reached the end of their patience. Sniper might not have personal experience with how the Church's inner working operates, but he has seen enough horrid actions from them to know that everything not following their law will be removed. 

"Hey! Less talking and more searching!" The shooter shouts.

"Alright, alright... what are we looking for anyway?" The doorman asks.

"Blueprints, prototypes, anything we can use against the terrorists."  
They sound further away. "Hey! Don't bother with that. Get over here and help me with this." It sounds like they all are gathering in the storage room. Perhaps he can use that to their advantage.

Sniper signs Dell to follow and he sneaks inside the workshop, swiftly using the nearby zeppelin frame as cover. Dell is close behind, and he is sweaty from expectancy for a fight. Sniper puts a hand on his shoulder, their eyes meet, and when sure Dell is not going to shoot before he does. Sniper sneaks closer to where the soldiers are; Laraine flies up to the top of the frame where she can watch every soldier. He cannot see through her eyes, but their link does allow her to "massage" him that the soldiers are busier rummage through the storage.  
"How much chance is that they find the stash?" Sniper asks Dell quietly, the soldiers are too far away and busy to hear them if they keep their voices down.

"I'm not sure." Dell muses back, "If they look closely, they will find the extra room."

"Locked?"

"Of course."

Good, that means that even if they find the door, getting the stuff will be difficult. He can use that. "Alright, get ready." Dell prepares his gun, "Wait for my signal, aim for the chest." The Texan nods and Sniper leaves to find a better spot. He finds it behind some metal bars, it gives him a nice view into the storage room. Two are searching the room, the third is watching. _'Must be the higher officer.'_ Sniper muses to himself and knows that taking him out first is a priority. 

"Can't we just take him instead?" The gruff sounding man asks, along with another, rummaging through the room.

"No, the boss was very specific about what should happen to Mr. Conagher." The higher officer replies. The voice reveals it was the one who shot the one that got caught by the sentry. He looks quite annoyed, probably because he considers this below his rank. The dog daemon, black and muscular, is impatiently pacing back and forward. It didn't take long before that impatience showed. "Hurry up! We don't have all night!"

Sniper aims at the man's head, but right as he's about to pull the trigger.  
"Hey guys, I think I found something!" The doorman calls and makes the higher officer move right the second he made the shoot. The bullet meant for the head misses and alarms them in the progress.

They spot him, "Kill him!" the higher officer yells and begins to shoot at him. Sniper quickly goes for cover. Dell sounds to take a shot, but all that got him was the soldiers shooting at him too. 

Sniper got a message from his daemon and like instinct, he reacts. The doorman got several bullets into the chest, and right as he hit the floor, his dog daemon disappears like a flame blown out. The two others shoot at him again, only a few times going for Dell. It's clear they have figured out that he's the biggest threat, but thanks to Dell, the soldiers are afraid to leave the storage room's cover, which allows this sharpshooter safety at his current spot. Sniper checks the magazine and with a finger on the trigger, waits for Laraine to message him again. He got one, but not to shoot. Instead, it's Dell being reckless. "Don't bloody move!" He calls/commands the Texan. If he does, not only will it give the soldiers a perfect chance to bag him, but it will remove the safety Sniper currently has from his location at the zeppelin. Laraine messages him that Dell heard and stays at his spot. He waits for the opening, and when she messaged him, Sniper leaves cover, though he only gets the higher officer in the arm. That guy sure got someone looking out for him, but it won't last. 

A bulldog daemon is out in the open, barking furiously at Laraine. Sniper ignores the daemon, the Magisterium soldiers might be scum and has pushed his morals a lot over the years. But Sniper refuses to break the taboo of harming someone else's daemon. He will harm the body, but never the soul. The man shoots a few times at him, to then look up to where Laraine is sitting, watching the whole area. Sniper thought the men wouldn't go past that line, but clearly he was wrong for the higher officer turns his gun at Laraine, and when realizing this fucker is going to shoot his daemon. He screams through their link, _'Get outta there!!'_ She takes flight right as the soldier shoots and dives down to him. "You bloody bogan!" Sniper shouts, enraged the soldier had tried to harm his soul.

"Scum like you don't deserve mercy!" The soldier retorts back at him. A few shots and he yells again. "Come out, or are you too afraid now your bird isn't there to help you?" 

Sniper growls but refuses to fall for the taunt; he's pissed but not that stupid. He waits for a pause between the bullets, it's a small window but one he has learned to spot. The second it arrives, Sniper starts shooting. He got the higher officer in the leg, forcing the remaining soldier to drag him back into the storage room and precisely a spot where he cannot see them. So he waits for them to peak their heads out. While doing so, Laraine flies over to where Dell is and will tell him it's safe to move in closer.  
The soldier appears, holding a shotgun, right as Laraine flies over to him, but before she can reach his location, the soldier fires and she gets hit by an electro ball. Sniper cries in pain from how much that hurt his daemon. She drops to the floor, unmoving and Sniper struggles to not do the same. The man's bulldog daemon speeds over and grabs Laraine in her mouth. The sense of teeth against his back and Sniper knows if he is not careful. That mutt will seriously hurt his daemon. 

Dell must've seen that, for he starts shooting at the soldier, who returns fire with that electricity shooting shotgun. The electro ball hits Dell, he froze up from the shot before dropping to the ground. His moaning from the pain does, fortunately, indicate that he's still alive. Sniper wants to help him, but with Laraine in that dog's mouth, he can't do much. _'I hate when that happens...'_ It is one of the disadvantages of having a small daemon. 

The soldier sends him one look but trusting his daemon to keep him in check. The man approaches Dell, who is trying to get back up on his feet. The guy shoots Dell again with the shotgun, making him cry from the pain and drop back to the floor. The soldier lifts his weapon slightly. "I'm in love right now." Wait, does that mean this weapon is one of Dell's? Shit... they got the door open. The soldier from the Magisterium points the shotgun at its creator. "I'll think I keep it, though I should've known you can't make a gun do a proper kill."

The dog daemon approaches the barely conscious Dell, but Naira charges and scares the smaller dog away the moment she got too close. With bared teeth, the beaver sneers; "You're too stupid to use it." which took the soldier greatly off guard. It's kinda an unspoken rule that daemon never speaks other than to their human. Good thing Dell's daemon does not care about that rule. Sniper uses this dumbfounded reaction to his advantage, he shoots at the soldier, getting him in the stomach. It will kill but slowly, for that's what he deserves from mistreating his daemon and friend like that. The pain made the dog drop Laraine, and she is quick to get away. 

Holding over his wound, the soldier at first stands in shock, probably knowing he does not have long, Sniper did hit the stomach and the acid will melt his inside. It will be a slow and agonizing death. The man must already feel it happening from how his daemon is whimpering. Then a cold, enraged expression appears on the man's face, one Sniper has seen many times before. He turns the shotgun at the roof and before Sniper can realize what the man is doing, the soldier shoots several electro balls at the wires that held the under construction zeppelin up, and Sniper can only watch the whole thing coming down. 

A loud buzzing sound coming from his ears, next, the pain and about there, Sniper opens his eyes.  
Metal is all around him.  
One is sticking through his arm. _'That better be all I got'_ He carefully moves his body, and he does not get the sense of being skewed. That's good. Sniper pulls his arm up from the small pole that skewed his arm, gritting his teeth from the pain. He does his best to ignore it and dig himself free from the zeppelin that fell over him. Sniper manages to create enough space to crawl out from and getting back on his feet, which hurt like hell, but his legs aren't broken, so he takes that as a win.  
_'Where are you?'_ He calls mentally after his daemon; she wasn't with him when the whole thing collapsed, and the pain he's feeling around the shoulder seems to come from her.  
He hears her high pinched kestrel call and limps over to the spot where he removes the parts burying her.  
Laraine shakes herself back up, and with; "That was bloody embarrassing..." she flies up and takes her spot on his shoulder. Sniper eyes her, quietly agreeing with her, and sort of wish he predicted that soldier's action. Speaking of which; he scans the destruction this collapse caused and indeed finds the soldier dead. Looks like he got killed by one of the larger metal frames from how his head is bleeding. Sniper doesn't feel anything seeing that, only noting that a blood trail is leaving the building. "The higher officer must've dragged himself out." He muses and that might mean there will come more.  
"Are you alive?!" Sniper calls out to Dell and already fears that his friend squashed like the soldier. 

Sniper hears a weak call from Dell, but it's too low for him to pinpoint the man. Fortunately, Naria appears from where the zeppelin mainly collapsed. "We're over here!" She calls and turns halfway to where her human is located. "But it isn't good. Dell's stuck."  
Sniper approaches and starts removing the parts to reach his friend, ignoring the sharp stinging pain he got from his many cuts.  
"Careful." The beaver warns him and looks up to a large frame that bends dangerously over them.

Sniper scans this spot and realizes that if he removes the wrong parts, that frame will crash right down on them. "Help me out here, Naria." He tells the beaver, not sure his sense for detail is enough for this situation. With the beaver’s help, he removes the part of the zeppelin that has crashed down on his friend and when Dell appears under the metal. Sniper quickly realizes what Naira meant. Half of Dell's right arm is trapped under the large metal frame and it's clear that lifting it off him is out of the option. "Bloody hell..." Sniper swears under his breath and cannot see any other option. At least the Texan is conscience, although only barely. "There's only one way I can get you free." 

"I know." Dell wheezes, and from his whole demeanor of intense focus, it seems the man has already come to the same conclusion. "How sharp–" he sneers in pain, but that focus does not wane for a second. "how sharp is your knife?" 

Not even going to bother correcting the man that his "knife" is called a kukri. That's something he should save for later. Sheathing his weapon, "Sharp enough for this." Lawrence replies and is not sure how to feel that this won't be the first nor last time he has cut a limp off with this weapon.

"Dell no..." Naira whispers and climbs on her human's chest. "There must be some other way." Lawrence can see why the beaver is against the idea, Dell needs both hands to do his job; to do what he loves to spend his time on. Dell shoos her gently away, telling her softly. "...It has to be done..." Blue meets brown. "Do me a favor... and clean it." 

Lawrence nods and from his bag takes out some disinfection he always carries in case he or someone else (in this case, Dell) needs some quick first aid. He pours the whole bottle on his kukri and his own hands. The content stings like hell on his cut hands, but Lawrence ignores it and when sure it won't cause an infection on his friend. Lawrence tears off his sleeve and binds it as hard as he can around Dell's upper arm so he won't bleed out after this.  
He spots a pencil among the destroyed zeppelin frame and hands it to Dell, and as prepared he can make them both. "You ready?"

Naira learns up against his chest in sign of support, Dell puts the pencil in his mouth, ensuring he won't break teeth during this gnarly procedure, and with his left arm wrapped tightly around his daemon. He nods to Lawrence, body tense in preparation for what soon has to happen.

Returning the nod and not wanting to waste any time, Lawrence chops the blade into the arm with as much might he can put behind his swing. Dell bites hard into the pencil and clearly struggles from not trashing around from the sheer pain. Lawrence didn't think much about it, more about finishing his task and get Dell to a hospital. He keeps chopping into the arm, causing a muffled scream from his friend. Blood splatters out, but thanks to the torn sleeves, most of it stops flossing out. Getting through the bone is a bit harder, but he gets through it and with the hand completely severed off, Lawrence tightens the sleeve before dragging the passed out man from the workshop and towards the truck, well aware he does not have much time. 

**Next day, unknown hospital**

Leaving the room he got put inside, Lawrence heads to the wall where several phones are located. He gives the nurse a quick nod and picks the phone furthest away. Lawrence finds the number to the hotel Lena would be in these next weeks but hesitates to call her. _'Bad news is all I have given her lately.'_ and it has been affecting her. Laraine lands on the box making up most of the phone. "She will worry more if you don't call." She states out. He knows they will fear the worst if he does not call in the agreed time scale. Letting out a sigh, he taps the number and a moment of waiting. 

_"Brass Rail Hotel, what can I do for you?"_ A young male clerk answers the call.

When he was still a wee lad, speaking with the clerks always made him nervous; he never liked talking with strangers. But now, after countless similar calls, Lawrence has gotten so used to it that he replies without missing a beat. "I would like to speak with Lena Shasta. She's expecting a call from me."

 _"Are you Lawrence Mundy, sir?"_

"Yes."

 _"One moment."_ The call gets transferred to her room. Again something he has done many times before. A change of tone and her voice comes through the phone _"Hello dear, I was starting to worry."_

Understandable, but he had to prioritize Dell's health first. "Sorry hon, but I had to get Dallas to the hospital." 

_"But he's not part of your hunting party."_ Lena replies, sounding confused, and he hates to hear her worried, but keeping her in the loop was part of their agreement. _"How bad is it? Will he survive?"_

At least he got good news there. "He will survive." Lawrence assures her, but he is not so sure if Dell will be fine. "The cougar got the jump on us, chased the bastard away, but I was forced to amputate parts of the right arm."

She's silent for a little while, most likely digesting what he has told her. _"He will be frustrated and feeling worthless, so be sure to be there for him."_

"Sure, but I can't leave the rest in the dust. Anton left to finish the beast." Lawrence explains, trusting she will know what he meant by that. 

_"He knows what he's doing. Right now, Dallas needs you more."_ The message is clear, Lena thinks Antoine can do the mission solo just fine and he should focus more on Dell. 

"Alright," Lawrence sighs. He wants to say more but noticing the doctor that tended Dell is approaching. "I have to go, send my regards to Dan."

 _"Of course, hear you soon."_ and she ends the call.

Lawrence steps over to the doctor that tells him; "You can see him now if you like." he nods and heads to the room where Dell is. 

Right as he steps into the room, "Dangit!" Dell cry and Lawrence knows his friend had hoped the amputation has been a fever dream, but it is a sad reality. Didn't take long before the Texan noticed him and grimacing a smile (most likely still in a lot of pain), Dell speaks. "Could've been worse, would've been dead if not for you."

Most likely, but Lawrence doesn't want to dwell on the 'what if's.'  
He wants to focus on what happens in the present and the future. He eyes what remains of Dell's right arm, the reminder of what happened in the workshop. "It was only the first attack. Whatever you did to piss them off, they won't leave you alone."

A sigh and Dell puts his left on the stump that once has been his right hand. "Yeah... I don't think they will." He quietly agrees.

Laraine flies down to where Naira is lying. Lawrence does not bother what the two daemons are doing. "I don't want to leave you in this shit-storm." Crossing his arms, Lawrence voices the only solution he can see at the moment. "Come with me, at least until your wounds are healed." After that, he will try and get a hold of Headquarters, see if they can offer Dell some protection. His friend looks as if he wants to argue, so he tells the Texan. "Don't pick a fight you can't win. Live and fight for another day, mate."

That seems to do the trick, Dell drops his head in defeat, "You're right..." his hand over the stump again. "but I won't be much use for you anymore."

"It doesn't change anything," Lawrence tells him. Clearly, Dell should know that they have long gone past that. "You're much more than an asset–"

"Wait a minute!" He blinks at the sudden outburst from the Texan, taken aback by how excited his friend suddenly looks. "Of course, how could I have forgotten about that!" Dell turns to him, grinning in a manner he has only seen on Naira's face. "Before his death, my grandfather invented artificial limbs." Wait what? Is he serious? "If those sons of bitches haven't taken them as well..." Dell's excitement drops, and that makes up his mind.

"I'll go and check for any artificial limbs in your workshop." Lawrence tells Dell and with those words, leaves to do just that. 

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The men who took him away from his home have brought him to an old decayed school and thrown him into a classroom where four kids at the age of ten are kept. They all turn in response to the door opening and back away when the man throws him inside. The man leaves right after, Nathan is quickly up on his feet and about to reopen the door but stops himself when he can clearly see the guard is armed. Going that way is a deathwish. He turns to the children, three girls and a boy, and all staring at him with the same scared look. Maybe they think he's one of the kidnappers, who tore them all away from their loved ones. "It's okay, I'm not one of them." He assures the children and walks over to the windows. They aren't boarded up, so maybe... but checking each, Nathan can see why the men haven't bothered boarding the windows; the room they are trapped inside is on the third floor and there isn't anything between him and the ground. Jumping will be suicide and if he survives, he wouldn't be running anywhere from such a fall.  
Nathan leaves the windows, his hand on the swallow shaped Nalini for some much needed self-comfort. _'I've heard rumors about the Cathers, but I never thought they would be real.'_ He stops and turns to the four kids, like him, they are seeking comfort from their daemon. Two of them are hugging each other, meaning they must already know one another. 

_'Poor kids,'_ Nathan thinks. He is a bit luckier being older and has enough experience dealing with sticky situations to keep himself from panicking like they look ready to. These kids don't have that small luxury. All they know that some scary people have removed them from everything they know. To be honest, Nathan is scared too.  
"One thing we have in common with them." Nalini whispers to him.  
He nods and asks the four children. "How long have you been here?" 

At first, none of them answers him, then one of them, the oldest it seems. Her daemon takes a terrier form. "I've been for here three days... Lucy and Ben came yesterday." She points at the girl and boy hugging one another. Nathan realizes that those two might be siblings. The girl speaking then points at a girl hiding in a corner, her daemon in the shape of a firefly, most likely trying to cheer her up. "She came this morning, has just stopped crying... Are you one of the Cathers?" She asks him, trying but fails to sound brave.

"No," Nathan shakes his head. "got taken just like you. I'm Nathan." He adds, thinking that them knowing his name will ease up their fear just a bit.

"I'm Heather." The girl with the terrier daemon introduces herself, and after some hesitating, she walks over to him, asking: "Do you know where they will take us?" She sounds hopeful, maybe thinking an adult will have some answers. 

But unfortunately, Nathan has no idea, nor what these people will do to them. All he knows for sure that he won't let them succeed and since he doubts no one will come to his aid; he has to use his own wits to get out from this. Nathan has to do something, not only for his own sake but for these children as well. "No, but I'm not going to stick around to find out."

"You going to escape?" The boy asks, he and his sister carefully approach him. Both of their daemons are in the shape of rabbits, though in different colors. 

He nods to them. "Yeah, will you help?"

The girl nods and turns to the three others. The two siblings eye one another, then to Nathan with a united nod. The girl in the corner hesitates but leaves her spot with a weak; "I-I try..." 

Nathan is glad his presence can ease up a little of their fear, and he wishes a plan about overpowering their captures would be an option, but none of them has the strength for such a plan.  
He has to figure out something else. 

However, barely ten minutes after his arrival, the men who took them away from their homes return. "Time to move." The disgruntled man calls and his hawk daemon starts stalking the other daemon, scaring them to move and the man also pushes them out of the door.  
The kids obey, too afraid to do anything else, but when the hawk gets over to Nalini, the bird gets one hell of a surprise when the rabbit turns into a cat and gets a face-full of claws. The man lets out a loud curse of the pain, Nathan moves for a tackle, but right as he does it, the man recovers and wallops him in the stomach with that gun of his. It not only punches all the air out from him, but it hurts so much that Nathan drops to the floor.  
"I hate the feisty ones." The man grumbles, cuff his hands and starts dragging him out.  
Nearing the stairs, the man pulls him back on his feet. "Pull another stunt and I'll break your fingers." 

Nathan is not sure if that's a real threat, but he does not take his chances with so many around. Instead follows the children back outside. Their kidnappers push them into the back of a truck and when slamming the door, leaves them in complete darkness. The kids start crying, overwhelmed by fear of this suffocating darkness now surrounding them. He cannot give them any light but knows that one thing might help. "Daemons, turn into night animals!" Nathan calls and as hoped, the nocturnal shapes help the children just a little, now their souls can see in the darkness. Not sure what form Nalini took, but he figures it will be a nocturnal animal as well from how he got a better sense of his surroundings. He feels the children move closer to him, and he allows them the comfort of close contact. 

He will not deny that he's scared, but Nathan has to stay strong, for these kids' sake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Okay, making this chapter mostly from Lawrence's perspective was a lot of fun. he has quite the laidback view on things, yet has one hell of a strict moral. Not sure if he will become OC like, for this version of Sniper does not have the same issues as canon Sniper deals with.**


	6. The Mexico team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **This is a long one, but I wanted to put more into the first part of this chapter, give Nathan’s family a bit more screen time before we’re going to focus more on the Team Fortress guys.  
> **  
>  I made a mistake in the old version by constantly shifting the point of view on people. But in this version, I will try and stick to one or two people in each chapter. 

Much to his joy, Lawrence brought good news when he returned from the workshop. The gunslinger was still there, overlooked by the Magisterium when they raided his workshop.  
"I may not be as smart as you, but I could still see that robot hand is some mighty brilliant work." The Aussie admitted and Dell wholeheartedly agrees. His grandfather sure was a mind of brilliance, all the way up to his death. "I brought it to the ship, among other things. You will have to check and see if I got everything."

"I will when I can leave the bed without passing out." Dell remarks, not surprised his body needs time to recover from this traumatic experience. A pain as if he still got the right hand, and all Dell can do is put the remaining hand on the stump. "If our 'friends' get scent on my whereabouts, you might have to help me out from here." Lawrence simply nods; if he already had that plan thought out or not, Dell can't really tell. Lawrence and Antoine have always been hard to read, though for different reasons.  
"Anyway, I should give Saffira the heads-up that I can no longer have Nathan for hire."

"There's no need for that."

Both he and Lawrence turn to the door, and the mother of his assistance stands there. Her usual sat up hair hangs over her shoulders, makeup smudged, and it looks like she hasn't slept at all. Seeing her in such a frazzled state, Dell straight away fears the worst. "What happened? Is he alright?"

Saffira hugs herself and her usual proud standing lion-looking cat is hunched down, acting mighty scared. "He didn't return last night..." She explains to them both. Dell gasps while Lawrence is stoic like so many other times, only the pacing from his daemon reveals his worry. "The boys and I have been searching all night for him. I tried to call you, but when you didn't take the phone..." Saffira eyes both of them, her gaze hard but also incredibly scared. "What the hell happened?"

"Some people do not take no for an answer..." Dell replies, now firmly pissed. Not at the men who almost killed him and Lawrence. It was only a matter of time. No, he's pissed at whoever took Nathan. He wasn't part of this mess, "He wasn't with us when it happened." so the two things do not seem connected, though they could easily be viewed that way. 

"Do you want me to help search for him?" Lawrence asks. His voice calm and collective, but without those yellow-tinted aviators, his true emotions shine through those brown eyes of his. It at times amuses Dell that Lawrence might have an indifferent mannerism, but that man is one of the most caring people Dell has ever met.

Saffira nods and the Aussie leaves, but before he disappears through the door. "News from him?" She asks quietly. 

Lawrence hesitates, always a clear indication that he's debating with himself how much of his mission he can talk about. "He's currently tracking down a dangerous beast. I will join him as soon I'm done here." and with those words, the man is gone.

Watching the spot where the Aussie left, "I'm going with him." Dell voices.

"You're going to fight?" Saffira asks, though she does not sound overly surprised by this.

Dell nods, "Yup, the Magisterium should've known not to piss off a Texan; we do not fight unless provoked and when we fight; you'll get hit twice as hard." More so when the enemy has dared to go after his loved ones.

She smiles weakly at that, "Knowing you, Dell. Whoever pissed you off; they're gonna need a lot of coffins when you're done with them."

"I pay them with bullets." She laughs at that small dark joke; it seems to cheer her up, if just a bit. Naira steps over to her and the woman's daemon, though addressing her; "Whatever happened to Nathan, we will find him."

"At least you've helped me more than the police." Saffira smiles, though quickly replaced with a scowl. "Bastards wouldn't lift a finger when they realized who asked. refused to help a gang member." Her daemon growls from her frustration.

Dell wisely didn't say anything about that, he can fully understand Saffira's worries, but he can also see why the police refused to help, however, how immoral that is. So instead, "We will find him." he repeats, sincerely hoping they will find him alive.

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It didn't take him long to find and put Saffira's older boys up to date that he's here to help. And as this city is on their turf, "This is your area, so," Lawrence eyes each of these young men. "do you have names on people that might want to hurt Nathan?"

"Yeah, I mean, most people don’t like Nate because of his daemon." John voices, frowning at this aspect that the whole city might be against their younger brother.

"He is kinda a freak" Bernard remarks.

Lawrence sends that young man a look but decides not to waste time lecturing him. Instead, "You have to shorten the list. Are there people who want to hurt your family?" and please do not let it be someone from Antonie's past. He got enough shit to deal with at the moment. 

"What about Lokk's gang?" Dean asks. Lawrence turns to him, brow slightly raised and the young man with the dog daemon explains, "He's been extremely pushy getting into our territory. And not long ago, Nathan picked a fight with him and won." He eyes the other brothers “Might still be pissy about it.” the others nod in agreement.

"And some rumors say he's working for the Magisterium." John adds.

That is something he can work with. "He's our first target." Lawrence lets the older brothers show him where this Lokk is located and they bring him to an old apartment complex, long abandoned and filled with graffiti and people being aggressively loud.

The people being here did quiet down as he and the brothers walked through. Lawrence notices that many of them are giving the brothers the stink eye. Laraine shifts so she can keep a sharp eye on those they pass, as he’s really not in the mood to get bashed over the back of his head. They reach a dilapidated playground, where, among some burning barrels is the man the brothers talked about. He’s quite small compared to the rest, but he definitely makes up for it in muscles. The guy wears worn yet expensive-looking clothing and Lawrence figures this Lokk didn’t get this clothing the honest way but rather took it from some poor bastard.  
The moment the red-haired noticed them, he pushed the young woman he was having fun with away and gets up from that makeshift throne, "Well, isn't it the pack?" he "welcomes" them smugly, "You seem to get smaller in members every time I see you."

"And yet we still manage to kick your ass." Bernard remarks, making the gang leader's smirk wane for just a moment. "Speaking of which, did you sic any of your lackeys after our freak?"

"Dude, stop calling Nate that." Ken grumbles to him, only heard by Lawrence and the other brothers.

Lokk smirk returns "Why? Aren't you happy to be rid of that abomination?” several of his lackeys chuckle. “Perhaps you should thank me."

"What did you do?" John demands, his basilisk lizard whip his tail in agitation. Lawrence stays calm, though ready to get very violent if it calls for it.

He notices several of Lokk's members are closing in on them, and emboldened by this, the man with the fox daemon spread out his arms like a twisted ruler. "Now I wish the rest of you are like him. I would've been living among the higher class by then!"

That's enough for him; Sniper draws out his kukri and in a swift move reached that gang leader and forced him close to one of those barrels, keeping him there with the blade against the neck. The other members stare dumbfounded at him, startled over such a quick reaction. "What is it going to be?" He asks the now wide-eyed man deadly calm, exactly like when he's about to take a shot. "Throat slit or burning?"

"Tell us where our brother is!" Dean shouts, the other brothers are glaring at the gang members surrounding them. Those members are shifting on their spot, unsure if they should attack or back off now that their leader is in grave danger. 

When not getting an answer straight away, Sniper cuts slightly into the neck and pushes the gang leader further to the fire. That did the trick. "Alright, alright! I'll talk, just—" Lokk looks at him, horrified. "make this psycho back off, will ya?!"

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Sniper muses, mostly amused by what this punk called him. "Speak." His daemon stares coldly down at the terrified fox that is unable to help her human.

"The Catchers took him, I don't know where." Sniper presses the kukri a bit closer, drawing bit of blood. Got Lokk into a state of panic from realizing he is not messing around. "That's all I know! I promise, I don't know where he is, they never tell us!" Sniper believes him; this punk has no reason to lie. Not like he has anyone to protect other than himself. He throws this red-head to the ground and starts to leave. “We’re done here.”

“Don’t let us catch you in our area.” Bernard warns these people, no one argues. They all stare at their leader, who is scuttling away from them in horror while holding over the small cut he got from him. 

"What now?" Ken asks on their way out from Lokk's area, fortunately, no one tries to stop them.

Lawrence hates to give them more bad news, but... it's best they know instead of worrying from obliviousness. "The Magisterium has been taking kids for a while now. My co-workers and I have been trying to find them, and if we do, then chances are that Nathan is with them."

"Any clues?" John asks quietly, adding, "Is there any chance we can help?"

Unfortunately, they can't on this part. "No, you have to leave that to me and the others." What they can do, however, "You should focus on supporting your mother." again he dislike saying this, but it is unfortunately a possible reality. "Nathan might not return alive." That made all the brothers' eyes wide from shock.

"Wait are you saying... he might get killed?" Ken asks slowly.

With Bernard adding his own question. "Why would they do such a thing?"

Lawrence eyes them hard, surely they must have realized. "Why do you think?" It only took them a moment, and they all, Bernard especially, realize; it's because of his daemon.

"He won't allow it." John speaks up, no need to say the name. Lawrence is well aware of who this older brother speaks about.

"Suppose he won't" He replies back and leaves the brothers. Lawrence needs to inform Saffira what he has found out and the situation might be more complicated than she thought. He finds Saffira at her home, and after having explained what this Lokk has said, Lawrence has to admit. "We don't know where the children are being taken. And with so few of us around, chances in figuring that out now are less so."  
It's clear she struggles not to start crying, Lawrence sincerely sympathizes with her. If it was his kid, he would've been just as upset as her. "So you're saying I might never see him again." she asks, although it sounds more like a statement.

He hates to say yes, but as things are now... “Yeah.” He replies her softly and does glance to his daemon when she suddenly suggests; "What about the alethiomist?" he realizes that person could be of use. Sure might have to torture them, but nothing he hasn't done before. "Maybe there is a way." Lawrence tells Antoine's wife, once again unsure how much he can tell. He decides to give her a glimmer of hope. Sure hell needs it. "Spook and I are currently hunting down a person who has an object that can reveal location on people. If we can get that person to work for us, we might find Nathan and the children."

"Let's hope." Saffira's daemon answers, he does sound hopeful, but Saffira too has been in this game long enough to know that things do not always work the way they want. "but if you find Nathan:" her blue meet his brown, "Tell him to kick those men asses."

He can't help but chuckle at this, well aware this is why Antoine fell in love with this woman, that and Saffira is a sucker to romantic people and Antoine happens to be a romantic dork. "I can give him one of my guns if it makes him feel better."

"Teach him how to use it first." Lawrence laughs but can see why. Can’t have Antoine’s kid end up shooting himself by accident. 

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It has been hard for Lawrence to have kept him up to date, but from what he could gather. His friend did figure out what happened to Nathan but can’t track him, so they would need the person he and Antoine have been tasked to kill. Hopefully, Antoine hasn’t gone out and assassinated that person already, for if that happens then finding Nathan will become straight out impossible. They have to find him before their friend put his murdering skill to good use. Which means they are on a strict time limit.  
Dell asked Lawrence to grab some painkillers while he got himself discharged from the hospital. He does not like stealing from the hospital, but with the life Dell is about to head into, lesser crimes such as this will unfortunately be the norm. 

Dell puts his jacket over his missing limp, having no wish to attract too much attention to himself and saying his goodbyes to Saffira, Dell meets up with Lawrence outside of his ransacked workshop. He steps inside and quietly scans the destruction the attack left behind. “It’s strange,” Naira speaks up to him, “knowing we won’t come back here.” He nods in agreement, but change will come, even for a static guy like him. Dell casts a quick glance over to where he can get a faint whiff of decomposition but does not go over to where his right hand is lying, having no wish to see what has become of it. Instead, he grabs tools from the floor and puts those he knows will need into the toolbox. Dell would’ve liked to bring blueprints with him as well, but the Magisterium soldiers have taken them all, meaning he has to recreate those.  
So instead, he focuses on gathering all of his tools.  
Naira finds a tool under a pile of parts and hands it to him. “You should bring some of the parts as well.” She suggests while pushing a few screws over to him, “Never know if you’re going to use it.”  
So Dell picks up what he now can find. Only leaves when the toolbox is filled to the brim.  
He stops at the broken door and gives his workplace one last look before leaving his former workshop and current life behind. 

Lawrence is waiting for him outside, leaning up against the truck and patiently watching him put the toolbox onto the back. “Is there more you want to bring?” the man asks.

He would love to bring more parts, but Dell knows that will only attract unwanted attention. “No, I got everything I need.” Lawrence nods and they both get into the truck, the Aussie has to drive though, much to Dell’s chagrin. He knew the consequence, but the reality of what it meant to miss a hand is first now really starting to set in. _’The sooner I get the gunslinger installed, the better.’_  
Dell is not sure how badly he would’ve taken all of this if he hadn’t the option of getting his right hand back. 

The drive to wherever Lawrence left the airship happens in relative silence, but with fewer houses around, “You doing alright?” The other man asks, he does not sound worried but the question is still genuine. 

Dell sighs and removes his hand from the right one, “Don’t know.” he admits as he honestly is not sure where his feelings are at the moment. “I knew what it meant to lose my right hand, but I guess…” He glances down to the concealed arm, “It’s first now the reality has sat in that nothing will be the same anymore.”

“Sounds more like you’re troubled about the future than your missing hand.” 

This catches Dell by surprise, but now that Lawrence mentioned it… “Maybe.” he muses and turns his gaze to the outskirts of the city he has lived inside these last eight years. “A bucket load of change in these past hours.” Dell can’t say he’s scared, maybe a bit anxious but he’s definitely not excited either. 

Lawrence hums and after a moment of silence, “You won’t be alone with this.” and Dell is glad, not sure how well he would’ve taken this if he had been all on his own. They reach a small lake, at the shore, a middle-sized boat is docked. Here Lawrence stops the truck. “I’ll let you know, I have taken very good care of her.” He remarks right as the hunter leaves the vehicle. 

Chuckling, Dell follows, though for a moment forgot he was missing half of his right arm, but out he got and going to grab his toolbox. “I’ll be the judge of that Down Under.” His wildlife friend gives him a look before carrying the box with supplies over to the docked airship. The first zeppelin Dell built.  
It’s one of his proudest work, this airship is disguised and can work as a regular boat, but with the turn of a switch, the sail will be replaced with the balloon and the ship will be in the air instead of water.  
Approaching the airship, Dell can see it has gotten a few scratches over the wooden exterior, but nothing to worry about. It’s clear this ship has been through a lot and yet, Dell can easily see that his two friends have been spending time to keep this small zeppelin in good shape. “Hm, looks like Dell does not have to bash your head in.” Naira remarks. 

“Told you she was in good hands.” Lawrence replies from the deck and the lean man appears moments later, a grin on his weatherworn face. “The remains of your secret stash is downstairs.” And he walks over to the router with; “You know where the uniforms are.”

“Yup,” Dell nods. He removes the rope that kept the ship docked, gets onto the deck, and rolls the ladder up. Lawrence activates the Anbaricity generator, which makes the hydrogen get into the balloon. It only takes about ten minutes before there’s enough of the gas inside to lift the ship and with it in the air, Lawrence starts steering it to where their third companion is located. Which reminds Dell, “Where is Antoine?”

“According to what one of the Elite infiltration told us,” Lawrence checks the compass beside the router so to be sure they are going to correct way. “the alethiomist should be inside a facility located in the Andean Nation.”

“That’s a large area to search.” Dell remarks and does wonder if they have to search that whole country for that facility. 

“Too bloody big, so it’s a good thing we got one of the miss’s there.” 

Ah, it seems that place has been under the watchful eye of one of miss “Tyrell” co-workers. It’s a good thing that branch of the Elite is known to get much needed Intel and Dell is certain the one he dealt with has given the Headquarters information that he’s no threat to the Resistance. At least he hopes that what she told them. “So what are chances that he already has found the place?”

“Not sure, he might not be in the nation as of yet.”

That could also be a possibility, so now he knows where they are going, but something still bothers Dell. “We don’t have much to defend ourselves. Hell, I don’t even have a gun.” And he’s not sure if his wrench can be counted as a weapon. 

Not missing the beat, Lawrence replies calmly, “That’s why we will make a quick pit stop at team 51 latest location.” he must’ve seen his confused look, for the sniper says. “It’s the team located in Mexico.” 

Good, that’s good. Dell would like to know if the people from that team have survived, he does not know every member, but he has gotten quite friendly with their Engineer. Speaking of which, “I’ll be downstairs.” Lawrence simply nods, seems more preoccupied watching Laraine fly around the ship. Dell goes below deck to be greeted by the living quarters/kitchen he made for this ship. The interior has warm coloring; almost everything is in the red color scale. The walls have a slight tint of red, the couth, held by needle tree wood, have pillows with maroon fabric and the table might look like it’s out of wood but in reality light but durable plastic. The kitchen is behind the couth, separated by a half wall and aside from the hob. The surface is made from wood, with the shelves out of the same plastic as the table. 

Dell takes a seat on the couch, right before the crate Lawrence has put down here. Naira gets onto the table and sticks most of her head down said crate. She pulls out the gunslinger but right as she’s about to hand it to him. “Better wait.” He tells her, doubting he can do the procedure in his current state. “I rather would like to have another Engineer or a Medic nearby. In case something goes wrong.”  
She returns it to the crate, and taking a seat before him, “and if the whole team is dead?”  
Well, then there is only one option, “Then I have to do it on my own.” Dell answers her. He knows he can do it; it’s just safer with people around.  
Naira titles her head, now with a smirk over her muzzle. “You maybe should’ve thanked those men.” He blinks, not sure what his daemon is talking about. “If I recall correctly, I did almost persuade you to saw your own hand off.”  
Ah, yeah, he remembers that. “And I stopped myself” Dell replies. Though it was close he almost did it, but his cautions won over his daemon’s recklessness. But Naira does have a point. In the end, she got the last say.  
“You can always thank them with a handshake, it should go right through their heart.”  
His daemon grins and he pushes her down from the table, refusing to admit she got a good point. The gunslinger is more than strong enough to pull off such an attack. 

He leaves the crate and gunslinger, walking over to the small armory he made. It’s too small for a person to stand in there as it’s more a large closet than a room. Dell finds several boxes with bullets, most of them are for revolvers and submachine gun. He searches for a bit but does not find a pistol or a shotgun— his choice of weaponry. “Hopefully, the Mexico team can spare me one.” He muses and turns to the shelf where the team uniforms are located. There are two uniforms for each of the nine classes, each waiting for someone to claim them. There are two colors to choose from; red or blue. Dell is not entirely sure why those are the colors the resistance chooses, but it’s not going to change anytime soon.  
He picks the blue uniform, mostly because red makes him feel like a giant target.  
Holding the shirt, Dell can’t help but reminiscence on the day all those years ago, back when both Antoine and Lawrence gave him the offer to join Team Fortress Resistance. Antoine had handed him a blue shirt as well, bearing the same logo he is soon going to wear.  
Back then, Dell had declined; said he would aid the resistance but did not consider himself a real member.  
“Are you ready this time around?” Naira asks him.  
Dell eyes his daemon and recalls that she started to speak not long after that traumatic eye-opener his grandfather threw on him. He smiles down to her “Yeah.” and begins to change.  
It feels strange to wear the uniform of one of the classes, to soon be addressed by the same codename as any other person wearing the logo of a wrench. Yet, he also feels proud to be part of that group of people.  
Putting the goggles over his eyes and his old hardhat on, Engineer heads upstairs and the moment his friend sees him in the uniform, he smiles. 

“Looking good on you.” 

Engineer smiles weakly, admittedly it’s still strange to be a full-fledged resistance member, but he cannot deny there is a certain excitement his former life never gave him. Does have some worries about being a member, “Do you think I am too easily recognized?” he asks.

“Nah, it’s only those close to you would know.” Lawrence replies and gesturing at his own face. “But I suggest you keep the goggles and hardhat on when on the field.”

“Got it.” He nods and wouldn’t mind doing that at all. But right now, Dell takes both off and puts them on a crate, which he turns into a makeshift table. Out from the pouch on the belt, he pulls out a pen and blueprint and begins to try and recreate his former work. Quickly proves difficult without a right hand.  
“Good reason to practice using the left.” Naira remarks. Dell does not answer, merely going back to try and draw with his remaining hand. Unlike Lawrence, who can keep himself entertained by watching Laraine fly around or fiddle with his weapons, Dell needs a bit more than to keep the infuriating boredom this long flight will cause at bay. 

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It took them about a day— plus a couple of hours to reach the last area team stationed here in Mexico last was seen. Lawrence puts the ship down in the middle of the desert and with Dell’s help, hides it from unwanted eyes. “There’s a town not far from here.” He explains the Texan and starts moving to said town. They might be in 51’s area but still too far walking, so they will need a vehicle. 

With Dell’s help, they manage to rent an old truck, and after have gotten a few supplies the other team might need, Lawrence starts driving to the other team’s base. While driving, he tries to call the team, well aware that no team wants sudden visitors. “Team 51, team 51, are you in the area?” He asks through the intercom the many teams uses to contact one another. The long-distance communication is down. However, Lawrence hopes that the team still could receive their shorter distance calls. It is going through, which means the team is still using this frequency, so that’s a good thing.  
But no one is answering the call.  
“Team 51, I’m a Nomad Sniper. I have supplies and a wounded Engineer with me. Do you copy?” Again, no answer. Lawrence hesitates but knowing another call will only resolve the same silent treatment, he turns the walkie-talkie off. “This is not good.” Teams are not known to leave a caller hanging like this.

“Do you think…?” Dell asks quietly, Lawrence does not answer, but it looks like Antoine’s warning wasn’t able to save this team either. His friend understood his silence “Should we continue after Frances?” 

“No, we need weapons,” Lawrence replies, and although he’s starting to hate this, it better than they lie and rot. “and we need to give them a proper funeral.” Dell simply nods. He continues to where the team was last seen by him and Antoine. This town is long abandoned, but the resistance had made it look active by pretending there was still ore inside the mine. It had been a good cover and knowing this base, which was known to be one of the more secure ones has been hit. It leaves Lawrence with a bad taste in his mouth.  
“Looks like an old mining town” Naria remarks, and Dell asks; “Wouldn’t it be hard hiding among mineworkers?”

“All a façade.” He replies to his comrade and stops the truck. “Stay here.” Sniper jumps out, making sure to both have the walkie-talkie and his rife. He walks into the town, Laraine is on a sharp lookout for danger and is too tense from possible attacks. Now inside the town, Sniper can see clear signs of battle. Many of the abandoned building walls are littered with bullets, checking inside through the broken window, he spots two dead Magisterium soldiers. The bodies have already made a big feast for the flies, and the stench has sat in too. Sniper does a quick check, but he moves on when he does not spot any team members.  
“Most of the bullets were aimed at the inn” Laraine tells him. She’s right, most of the bullet wounds on the buildings are aimed at the once inn of this town. Sniper notices the building has several signs of reinforcement, so the team had tried to protect themselves.  
Picking up his radio, he approaches the building. “Team 51, do you have survivors?” He hears his voice inside the building from the other radio. With a pit in his stomach, Sniper steps inside. The smell is terrible, the sign they have been dead for a couple of days. A sleeve over his nose to cover most of the poignant stench, Sniper walks inside and his heart drops when he finds the team’s Pyro near the door, several bullet wounds at the chest. He kneels before the body, like the other times, it’s always hard to see someone he considered a friend like this. This Pyro— Ayo, he took his job so seriously, as much as Sniper did and it had become a running joke between them. It’s going to be weird not having this prick to greet him anymore. “I’m sorry, mate.” Sniper muses and quietly moves on, knowing more sights of fallen comrades will meet him. 

He spots the Medic, half his torso missing and by the looks of it, the man had been trying to save the Soldier, but it seems the enemy took them both out with a grenade. He barely knew the Soldier, guy liked to keep to himself and Sniper respected that, well aware he is very much the same on that part. The Medic was hard to get along with; man had that loud African attitude and Sniper didn’t really care about Medic’s view that the whole world was against him. Hence why he let Antoine deal with him when they came with supplies to this team. He leaves the two, noting to himself. _’I’m going to need a sack if I wish to gather all of their parts’_ It is gruesome, but there are limits in how much rotting guts Sniper wants over himself. 

Checking the rest of the building, Sniper takes note of two things; one, from how the bodies are located, the Magisterium hit them quick and hard and two, he only found their Spy, (he looks to have bled out from the bullet he received in the thigh) the rest are nowhere to be found.  
“they might have survived.” Laraine speaks, and Sniper does a quick sweep for this possibility. He finds a hidden path, most likely an escape route. There is a blood trail, so he decides to follow it. However, barely three steps out and Laraine makes her warning sound. He quickly leaps back inside, draws his rifle and carefully checks for the other shooter through the secret passage.  
He spots the person Laraine warned him about behind some rocks, the scope reflecting in the sunlight, which is a bit unusual. _’He wants to know I’m aware of his presence.’_ Sniper realizes and must say that the intimidation works, for he’s not going to leave this building with that guy around.  
“I don’t have time for this.” He grumbles, some member of this team might be bleeding out as far as he knows. He aims at the other sniper, but when he gets the man in his scope, Sniper removes his finger from the trigger. He knows that person.  
Not sure if this other Sniper has recognized him or too paranoid about checking, Sniper takes his hat and throws it outside. 

A painful moment of waiting, the other Sniper whistles, signing he got the message. Sniper leaves the building and waves up to the man on the cliff, who returns the gesture. The other Sniper gets down, making that hooded cape of his bristle behind him. His daemon, a bobcat easily gets down from the rocks and a happy trot, approaches them. This blue dressed Sniper pulls down the stone-colored hood, revealing a middle-aged man with messy blond hair and beard, it is starting to grey at the sides but that’s pretty much the only sign of his age. “Sorry about that,” the man apologizes with a smile, making the scratch mark scars bend over his face. “thought you were one of them.” He scratches the back of his head with a sheepish chuckle “Good thing you got a good eye, or I might have shot you.”

Yeah, maybe he should’ve put on his uniform before approaching a battle zone with survivors on high alert. "That wouldn't have looked good on your record mate.” Sniper returns the smiles, and the other Sniper laughs at the small joke with his daemon rolling almost playfully on the dusty ground between them. He’s glad to see this man is still kicking. By far, this blue Sniper the one he got along with best. A handshake and he asks this team Sniper, "Can you tell me what happened?”

The blue Sniper frowns deeply, “Well, after your comrade warned us. We reinforced the base, but it wasn’t good enough.” He explains and his daemon, still lying, looks up to him with big troubled eyes. “They came out of no-where, got Pyro before we could react. Tried to retaliate but after they hurled grenades at us from all sides. Boss told us to flee. Spy got shot as we did. Heavy tried to grab him, but I think Spy told him to get out from there, for he left Spy behind.” The man sighs and leans up against the rocky wall that would’ve given those who fled some cover. “In all my years, I have never experienced an attack such as this. it was like—“

"They knew exactly how to find and kill you." Sniper finishes for him, he has heard that one before. Scottie, the Engineer from the team once stationed in Colorado said the same thing before he died. It’s bittersweet, knowing this team got hit, but at least some of them survived. "You are not the only ones who got attacked like this.” the blond Sniper eyes him, and he explains. “The team from Florida and Colorado got ambushed like you were."

"How many survived?"

"None.” The other Sniper drops his head. But at least there is some good news. “One of the Elite infiltration team got whiff on why this is happening: a new alethiomist have turned up, and we’re on our way to get rid of them.” 

“Good,” the blue Sniper nods, and crossing his arms, “the sooner the better, we can’t take another attack like this.”

So there are more survivors. “Did more of you survive?” The blue Sniper nods, that’s wonderful news. “I have bit of medicine and food, but I am in need of help.” The other Sniper blinks, so he explains. “I have an Engineer with me; he lost his right hand but got some fancy machine to make up for it. We’re both in need of weapons and ammunition.”

“I’m sure we can spare some.” The other Sniper replies, nodding slightly. He then glances to the inn and a mournful expression appears on his features “Before I bring your two to the others. Could you…”

No need to hear the rest, Sniper knows this man would like to give his comrades something that resembles a funeral. “Of course, but we really don’t have time for a proper one.” He warns the man. He and Dell need to reach Antoine before that spy finds the alethiomist and slit their throat. 

“Of course.” the other Sniper nods. He follows him over to the truck, the moment he spots Dell. “I’m team 51 Sniper, a pleasure meeting you, though I wish it was under better circumstances, eh?”

Dell nods in agreement. “Yeah, are you the only survivor?” 

“No, my team’s scout, heavy and engineer are still alive.” Blue Sniper replies and right as Sniper pours some of the gasoline into a tank “Did that happen when your team got attacked?” Presumably talking about the missing hand. 

“I don’t have a team, not yet at least.” Dell chuckles faintly, Sniper is not sure it’s because he fully committed to the resistance recently or Dell is wondering what kind of team he will be stationed in. 

“Oh, so you’re new?” Blue Sniper sounds a bit suspicious.

“Yup.”

Knowing his fellow sniper is still on high alert, Sniper remarks as he hands the other sharpshooter a small tank of gasoline. “He’s been supporting us for years, the reason he lost the hand.” The other Sniper takes the small tank, gives Dell one look before he follows him over to the inn. Out of Dell's hearing range, he tells the man from Canada, “Don’t worry about him. I trust this man.” 

“Sorry to ask, but how much do you trust him?” Understandably wary, Sniper would too if it has been the other way around. 

“With my life.” He replies, and that seems to calm his fellow sniper down. They pour the gasoline around the inn and the other Sniper lights the whole thing with an incendiary arrow. They both watch the flames taking hold on the entire building, becoming the members inside’s flaming grave. Sniper lets the other man have a moment, before he requests the other Sniper “Bring us to your team.”

**Half an hour later.**

“We’re here.” The blue Sniper says and Sniper stops the truck, right outside another mine. The man eyes him quickly "you better get into your uniform." He gives his fellow teammate a look and blue Sniper replies, "otherwise you will be shot." 

Ah, looks like they got a sentry stationed nearby. They don’t take any chances, but Sniper does not blame them one bit. "Right." They get out of the truck, and while the two others handle the supplies, Sniper puts on his uniform and his different shades of brown sleeveless jacket. He feels more at ease with it over his uniform. With everything set, the blue Sniper takes the lead and approaching the mine, Sniper can hear faint yelling. But he does not mention it, figure tension is quite high after what this team has been through.  
Down the tunnel, the yelling gets louder, Sniper notices Naira seems ready to make a remark, but a look from him and she wisely keeps her mouth shut.  
The tunnel splits and on the left side, a sentry gun is stationed. Turning back and forward with the occasional beeping. Sniper notices the smile on Dell’s face and meeting his friend's gaze and smirks back. _’Yeah, we sure have put your work to good use’_

The blue Sniper must’ve noticed that small exchange, he does look a bit confused. "You act like you have seen such a sentry before? I thought you said you’re new." His daemon shifting her gaze from Naira to her human, unsure what to do.

Dell turns to the Sniper, still smiling. "Yeah, and this is the first time I see it on the field." That only confused the other Sniper more. “I’m the inventor of this machine.” 

That catches the caped Sniper off guard. "You.. invented the sentry gun, eh?"

"Yup, with the help of your Engineer, of course."

“Ohh… so you’re the one.” This team’s Sniper speaks in realization of who he got before him. Sniper is quite amused but happy to see his pal open up to his old friend. Starting by folding out his metal bow and showing it to Dell. "Recognize this?" and the Texan’s face lit up as if he just received a million gold dollars.

"Ah, I remember, good project to sink my teeth in." Dell takes the metallic bow, one his fellow Sniper requested from Dell a couple of years back. Unlike most snipers, this one prefers using a bow, which does allow him to be closer to the team, but it also removes their long-range attacker. Of course, Dell does not care about that, he simply built this bow for the challenge's sake. "I reckon you're the fella Sniper spoke about; he said one of his fellow snipers preferred using a bow instead of a rifle and asked if I could build a stronger bow which can be hidden very easily as well." 

“Yeah, that’s him.” Sniper chuckles, exchanging a look with his fellow class mate, who returns it with a smile.

Dell draws the bow, but it’s clear he does not know how to use it properly since he’s aiming incorrectly. "It doesn't shoot as far as a sniper rifle, but I'm sure the incendiary arrows I made will make up for it. It's firing well I hope?" Dell returns the weapon back to its owner. 

"It sure is." the Canadian smiles, folds and returns the bow under his small cape. "I do have a few... let's say suggestions.” Well looks like Dell got this one on his side. Good, can’t have animosities among the members. Got enough enemies to worry about.

“What do you have in mind?” Dell asks, his eyes might be hidden but Sniper only needs to look down at Naira to see he’s excited to build something new.

“Can you build arrows that can hold tear gas?"

"I can, but I would need two hands for it." Dell replies, gesturing at his missing right hand. "And I would need your engineer or medic's help for that." He didn’t notice it, but Sniper did see that his fellow class mate’s smile fade at the mention of one of the deceased. 

the man does quickly push those feelings aside, “Our Engineer might help you.” the other Sniper heads down the other tunnel, where the yelling is coming from. “If she does not tear our boss’s head off first.” 

“Should we be worried?” Naira asks, and Dell looks a bit worried. 

Sniper chuckles, “Nah, she likes smartasses” and walks inside to the team’s current base. At the entrance, the team’s Heavy is standing. He’s a decent-sized man, got as many muscles as he got fat— which seems to have saved him from the many blood spots on his arms. The man’s daemon, a boar, turns when they enter, but soon lies down again. The man does not move from his spot, more set on keeping his dark eyes onto the floor. Sniper notices this Heavy got a mournful expression from how much his brows furrowing. _’He must’ve been hoping Sniper would’ve returned with the Spy.’_  
They seemed close as he always found them talking, and with the man gone, this team's Heavy will have difficulties as he hasn’t learned the language.  
Sniper would like to give his condolence, but due to him being bad at words and Heavy here wouldn’t understand him anyway. Sniper instead puts a hand briefly on the man’s bloodied shoulder, catching his attention and Sniper taps his chest with a fisted hand.  
The Heavy drops his gaze slightly but returns the gesture and do a small bow—his way of saying thanks. 

He leaves the man, Dell follows and they approach the two having a shouting match. One of them is the team’s Engineer, the only woman on the team, but that hadn’t put her down for one second. This team Engineer is of African descent like the Medic was as well and that showed in her daemon’s form, which is what she said is called an aardvark. Sniper still chuckles how Antoine had described her daemon; that God decided to mix a pig with a rabbit and gave it a stumped rat tail. Sniper joins his fellow class mate, who wisely keeps his distance. Sniper does too, for by the looks of it, the female Engineer is still as feisty as ever. 

"— I don't care, he's my brother!" The female Engineer snaps and the team’s Scout, like the rest of them, quite beaten up from the attack, but how much of that blood on his blue shirt is his, Sniper is not sure. This Scout, like any other of this class, is slender and decently muscular to have the speed the scout class is known for. His right eye got a slash wound, and Sniper is surprised the man hadn’t lost his eye from it.  
The female Engineer glares at him, her gloved hands fisted and she looks ready to punch Scout’s face. "No way in hell I am letting him get eaten by vultures. He deserves a proper burial!— they all do!" Her daemon starts digging his powerful claws into the dirt in the sign of her frustrations, utterly ignoring the grey fox yipping angrily at him.

"Don't you think I want that too?!" Scout retorts at the mostly red-dressed woman. He points to the entrance, inwardly at him, blue Sniper and Dell. The action made the dog tags around the man’s neck swing around. "They were my comrades— my friends as well! But I am not letting anyone leave before I get a report from Sniper!" The man is so busy with this shouting match that he hadn’t noticed that his team Sniper has returned along with two more. And Sniper is not going to try to get their attention, he learned quickly that getting between the two will end with a headache. “I am not going to lose any more people—“ Scout begins to pace, here Sniper notices that the speedster has a limp, meaning the blood on the legs belongs to the man. “and you will stay fucking right here until I say otherwise!"  
Scout steps over to the Engineer, making their faces be inches from one another, both glaring. She is the act of anger and defiance and he, reinstall his authority over this team. "Do I make myself clear?!"

They stand like this for several moments, and Sniper having no wish to break the tension. Well aware it’s not his place to dictate how a team functions. The only sounds coming from them are their daemon. The aardvark snorting angrily and the gray fox with the misshapen face let out a wave of high-pitched barks, not backing down even though the much bigger daemon attempt to charge into her. Then the aardvark backs down right as the female Engineer yells a hard: "Fine!" and she stomps deeper into the mine. 

The Scout lets out a long tired sigh and learns against the makeshift table, brushing his hand through his short copper hair and at that moment; he looks older than he probably is.  
"Scout." Blue Sniper calls, finally getting the man’s attention. “Sorry I didn’t speak sooner but I rather not get between Engie when she’s like that. You know what I mean, eh?”

A small frown over the man's forehead, “Yeah...” Scout nods slowly. He leaves the table and clearly pretending his leg does not hurt, the man stands tall and his blue eyes on him and Dell. "Who are they?— wait, I know the Sniper." He points at Sniper, “You’re that Nomad Spy’s companion.” Sniper nods he indeed got that right. Scout strokes his hand briefly over his bloodied face. “Thanks for the heads up. Doubt the rest of us would’ve gotten away if not for your partner's warning.” That’s good to know. Sniper is getting tired to find only dead teams. Scout then turns to Dell, his eyes narrow and Sniper does not like how his fox daemon back bristle from apparent anger. “I don’t need this shit right now." That’s the only warning, Scout pulls out his gun and points it at Dell, startling everyone around them.  
Sniper is quick to draw his own weapon and point the kukri at the Scout. Yeah, the man might be more paranoid than usual, but that does not give him a pass to aim a gun on his friend. 

“Scout, what are you doing?!” Blue Sniper asks, clearly taken aback by his team leader’s action. “He’s the guy who invented the sentry gun and the signal.” The Heavy and Engineer approaches, but neither sure what they should do, which is good for Sniper really does not want to kill any of these people. But he will if it comes to it. 

Scout does not lower his gun, he continues to point the startled Dell. "I do not fancy having a Conagher in my base." This takes Sniper by surprise, how did this man know that Dell is part of that family?  
"So you better give a **fucking** good reason not to blow your goddamn head off!"  
His fox daemon jumps at Naira, and although the beaver is a lot heavier, the nimble fox quickly gets her jaws around Naira’s neck and forces her to the ground.

“Back the hell down, Scout!” Sniper sneers and as commanding he can, but Scout does not have to listen, like him, this guy is a Second Mark. “He is one of us! I gave him the uniform!” 

“Then you made one hell of a poor choice!” Scout retorts back, not once removing his gaze from Dell, who wisely stay still and his lift hand up in sign of surrender. "His family has been working— kissing up to the Church for generations! His fucking father tried to kill me!" A nod from Scout and Sniper glances down to the man’s daemon. Giving that scar on her face a better look, he realizes these three large gashes comes from a bite; a beaver’s bite. "We still deal with migraines from that.” Scout explains him briefly and turning his full focus on Dell again. “It’s surprising how deadly a beaver can be. Especially when she was just as nice and calm as yours is this very moment." Like Dell, Naira is not trying to pick up a fight, but it seems that it only makes it worse.

This is bad, really bad. Lawrence has met Dell’s father, their mannerism is very alike, so convincing Scout that Dell is not like that old man will be hard. He tries to come with a good counter-argument, but word play has never been his strongest suit.

"I'm awfully sorry you had to go through that,” Naira speaks directly to the Scout, catching both him and his daemon by surprise, but she does not move, wisely staying in a submissive stance towards the man. “But D- I mean Engineer is not like his father.” She eyes the dumbfounded staring fox, addressing her. “and I’m not like the beaver that chewed on your face. For starters,” She smirks “I would’ve shoved you into a wood chipper instead.” Sniper facepalm that Dell just had to let his more twisted side out, now they won’t get Scout on his good side. “I didn’t mean that.” Dell tries to save the situation, but of course, Naira has to ruin it. “Sure, and you didn’t try and chop your own hand off.” She turns to Scout, “If you’re not too busy, perhaps we can be of use to you. Can’t really be that if you decorate the walls with his brains.” 

A very long harrowing silence. Then, Scout snorts and a second later, he starts laughing. His team looks at him as if he has lost his marbles and Sniper is inclined to think the same. This Scout is not known for his sense of humor. Finishing up laughing, Scout eyes Dell, now with a twisted smirk “Alright, smartass, I’ll give you one chance.“ He then eyes Sniper, who hasn’t dropped his weapon “how much do you trust this guy?”

“With my life.” Sniper replies without hesitation. Laraine is puffed up to look bigger and glaring at Scout for daring to endanger a friend of his. 

“Good, for if he tries anything, then you will get shot.” Scout limps away, “Sniper give me that god darn report— Engie, keep an eye on the smartass. If he tries anything;” He casts Dell a warning look “shoot to kill.”

The female Engineer turns to where Scout is leaving, a large frown over her face. "Aren't you just a bit too paranoid?" She asks him and gestures to Dell’s missing limp, “He’s missing half his right arm.” 

_’Might slow him down, but Dell can still be deadly— if he wants to.’_ Sniper muses to himself but does not voice those thoughts aloud. He rather not has to shoot team members. 

“I don’t think I’m paranoid enough with that man!” Scout calls back. “For all I know he can turn our weapons against us with a switch of a button. So don’t fucking let your guard down!" and the man mumbles something Sniper thinks is ‘I’ve lost enough people already’ but he can be wrong. 

Rolling his eyes, Sniper sheathes his kukri. "And that's why you never should make a Scout the boss. They let their emotions control their action." Yeah, sure Scout has any reason to be on his guard, it’s only natural with this type of lifestyle, but he should’ve known that someone like him does not make mistakes. Not to mention, the other Sniper already said Dell is the creator of the sentry gun and the signal they all use. _’If he hadn’t been on our side, Dell would’ve turned the signal against us a long time ago.’_

"He has kept us alive so far." The female Engineer points out dryly to him. she glances to where Scout and Sniper left. "Even if he can be infuriating at times."

Dell chuckles at her words. "Reminds me of someone else I know, not a Scout mind you." She eyes him, her brow slightly raised. "He's a Spy." 

"Oh, well spies are a pain in the ass too. Ours was especially, half what came out from his mouth pissed someone off." 

Sniper snorts a laugh at the female Engineer way accurate description of the people in the spy class. “Same with the one I’m stuck with.” He remarks, she smiles at that. 

The female Engineer turns back to Dell and putting her gloved hands on her meaty hips, “Well, it’s good to finally see the mug of my engineer partner. I would love to give you a good old handshake, but Scout might see that as a threat, so let’s not push it.”

Dell lets out an embarrassing laugh, “Yeah, let’s not.” he agrees. A gesture from her and the two Engineers head over to her makeshift worktable. Sniper does not follow, merely watching and listening to the two: "If your boss would allow it, I would like your help to attach one of my grandfather's invention onto my arm."

"It depends on how complicated it is. I'm more specialized in radio waves than the machine itself." 

“Don’t worry, I only need an extra pair of hands.” 

Sniper leaves, feeling safe enough to leave the robot arm attached to the more tech-savvy people. It allows him to speak with Scout if he and Dell can get some weapons and ammunition before they leave for  
the Andean Nation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I will put the gunslinger attachment to another chapter as that part should be from Dell’s point of view.  
> **  
>  And in case you haven’t read the old version of this story. Team 51 or Mexico team members are OC’s I created to give the TF2 guys allies that would help them out from time to time when the protagonists need more hands on deck. 
> 
> **I have put them in another story, so if you’re interested in reading them as rivals/reluctant allies to the TF2 guys, try and read “Living Darkness.”**


	7. Trouble at the Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Expanding on this chapter was tricky. At first, I thought about expanding the runaround and chat between Nathan and Frank. But then realized this chapter held an opportunity I wouldn’t have in a future chapter. One of them is a faint introduction to a future protagonist, and the other, expanding my OC female Engineer’s personality.**

Those men took him and the children to a sort of freighter, showed them below deck, and only allowed outside at certain hours. Nathan is not sure what time it happens; unfortunately, he has lost all kinds of sense of time. All he knows, they have sailed for quite some time and the hope to get away from his captors dims. There’s no way he can flee in this situation, for even in a boat, he wouldn’t fare well against the ocean. Watching the sea from the porthole window, not any sort of land in sight, and Nathan can’t help but wonder: _'Where are we going? Are we even in American waters?’_ Questions he cannot answer on his own, and it’s not like the crew are going to answer him. 

“Alright kids, time to stretch your legs!” The man who's been tasked to keep an eye on them calls from the now open door. The children slowly get up, their legs are stiff from sitting for hours, and Nathan admits that he too is quite stiff, but mostly just plain bored. He turns away from the porthole window and joins the children leaving this depressive room. Passing their current prison guard— a red-haired man with a greyhound for a daemon, one who has been giving him weird vibes from how he is around the children. Nathan has to resist the urge to punch this guy in the face just to get some relief from the tension his body got built up. 

They get up on deck, up to some nice sunny weather, which is a godsend after they have been stuck down in that damp and gloomy room from what felt like forever. Nathan watches the children wander aimlessly around the deck, out of fear keeping their distance from their kidnappers. Nathan does not blame them, several of these people are huge and at least two of them got some scary daemons. One of them is a mountain of a man, grey like one too, but that didn’t remove the scare factor from his huge wolf daemon. Nathan and the children learned quickly that getting in that guy’s path is a terrible idea. That mountain has no patience for any of them and has shoved a child harshly aside, making the kid scrape his knee over the deck-floor. Nathan had tried to protect the kid, but all that got him was a beating he can still feel. So yeah, bad idea to piss that guy off. 

The other guy with a scary daemon is one Nathan doubts knows the word ‘haircut’ for that guy’s hair is all over the face, only nose and those beady dead-dark eyes can be seen through that mane of hair. His daemon wasn’t much better. No idea what the species is called, only that she is a big ass lizard— almost looking like a dragon if not for the lack of wings and fire breath. This mane-head guy didn’t speak much, but when he did, he always did it to make a deadly point not to screw with him. Freaking scary and here Nathan thought some of Lokk’s members were mental. Yeah, they got nothing compared to that guy. 

Of course, there are others but none really stand out to Nathan, so he mostly ignores them. Instead, he focuses on putting this small plan he got into action. It is risky, but Nathan would rather put up some sort of resistance than just sit and let these people take him and the children to who knows where. He glances down to Nalini; she’s busy chewing off a rope, one he’s planning on using to this plan of his. Has been slow progress, Nathan knew he couldn’t stand around too long at the time in the risk these people will notice his attempt.  
“Got it.” Nalini calls quietly, and he dares to steal a glance over to her. The rope is free from the mast and looks long enough for this plan of his. “Good, be sure to hide it.” He whispers back. Nalini takes her terrier-mix form and carefully drags it over to a cluster of barrels, hiding it between them. With it set, Nathan leaves and walks over to the children clustered together. He notices one of the girls look ready to cry. “You all right?” He asks her.

The girl shakes her head and while hugging her kitten shaped daemon. “I miss my mom…” Nathan kneels down so he’s at her level, she meets his with her teary-eyed brown eyes. “I wanna go home.”

“Me too.” He replies softly. Oh he would love to get back home, be with his family, even if half of them drives him insane. But he— and the kids know that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Nathan has often dreamed about leaving Boston, see more of New France or the world. But not like this… he eyes the people who took them away from their loved ones. The man with the greyhound daemon is kneeling down before some other kids, but whatever he says makes the kids uncomfortable, and when he notices Nathan is staring. The guy replies with a smug smirk, as if thinking he can do whatever without fear of punishment.  
It made his blood boil. Before Nathan knew, he has stormed over and punched the guy right in the face. 

Took the asshole off guard but quick to retaliate. Nathan cries in pain from having his hand bend further than it normally should. “Think you can get away with this, you little shit?!” The man demands enraged, Nathan is not going to surrender that easily. Ignoring the pain, he kicks the man right in the stomach, hard enough for the man to let go and drop wheezing on the ground. 

Seeing the man like this gives Nathan a nice shot of confidence, “Not much of a tough guy now!” he turns to leave but stops when the mane-man is looming right before him. His confidence plummets at the sight of this guy and before he can react. The man hits him over the leg, hard enough for Nathan to cry out in pain and drop to the ground, but fortunately, not enough to break bones. 

The man steps onto his leg, hard enough for it to hurt. “Do that again and I will break every bone in your legs.” The mane-man increases the force onto his leg and it takes every fiber in Nathan not to start crying out from the pain. “They only wanted you alive.” With those words, the man steps away, pulls the one he punched up, and leaves with no further words. The redhead with the greyhound sends him a death-stare before he leaves too.

Nathan gets up in a sitting position, unsure if he can stand from how much his leg hurts. He did fairly easily brush the threat aside, although in the back of his mind, well aware that these people didn’t do bluffing, mane-guy especially. Nalini steps up beside him “Was it worth it?” she asks deadpan, but not judging, all because; “Hell yeah.” he replies his daemon. Not a sliver of regret from has picked that fight, the greyhound freak will now think twice before approaching the kids with him around.  
Nalini smirks in return, does however fade as she turns her gaze to the big-ass lizard. “Too bad Mr hair-due has to ruin it.” Nathan nods in agreement. 

Some of the children walk over, the girl that felt terrible homesick takes a seat beside him. One of the girls that the greyhound guy freaked out tells him quitely. “You shouldn’t have done it...” 

“Hut I wanted.” He retorts cheekily, and it did make some of the boys' smile. Eyeing each of the children, Nathan is reminded why he will put his reckless plan to action; because of them. “Don’t worry, I got beating worse from my Ma than that guy.” It’s a lie, his mother has never hit them; she was way more creative with her punishments for such a thing. But it did the trick by calming the kids down that he’s alright and not dealing with a very sore leg from the small beating he received.

They were hauled down in that dreary room again about an hour later, Nathan limped on the way, much to the guy he punched amusement. “That’s what you get picking fights with the likes of us.” Although Nathan wanted to throw a snarky remark back, he held his tongue. Afraid if he did, he accidentally revealed that he was faking his injury. It hurts sure, but not enough to cause a limp. Back inside the room, Nathan takes a seat on what he and the kids have used for beds, but Nathan wouldn’t call them that. More a slap of sheets and flimsy mattresses that didn’t help at all to soften the hard wooded floor. 

The hours ahead are incredibly boring, and like most of the other kids, Nathan ends up falling asleep from sheer boredom. Like any other night, he wakes and would’ve lie there and think about home until the guard would bring them canned food. But not tonight. Nathan quietly gets up and heads over to the porthole window. Usually, it would only get opened if it gets too hot down here, but tonight, this window will play a more significant role. Nathan opens it and Nalini takes her hawk form, flies out from it and not long after, the rope appears from the porthole window. Nathan grabs it but waits for Nalini to signal him it is safe to climb. He gets it through the link they share, a sense that she got it tighten. Nathan puts the rope into his mouth since he’s going to need both hands for this. Nathan climbs out from the window, it is bit of a struggle as he needed to jump to properly reach the porthole, and he has to be incredibly careful due to the fact that one misstep and he will fall into the ocean. Halfway out, Nathan turns so he sits inside the window opening. He grabs the rope but hesitates. He has never climbed up a rope before, and that realization hits him hard that very moment. Nathan glances down to the waters, the ocean is still, but that does not change the fact that he won’t be able to swim back home. If he falls, he will be a goner. “You can do it.” Nalini’s voice from above, Nathan looks up to his cat-shaped daemon, looking down to him from the deck with those glowing eyes thanks to the moon’s light. “It’s just like climbing a tree.”  
Yeah, only that he got one branch to think about. Taking a deep breath, Nathan tightens his grip around the rope and begins to climb. When his feet leave the window and all his weight gets put onto his hands, Nathan realizes that this ISN’T like climbing a tree. “Shit shit shit….” He curses under his breath but still continues this agonizing climb, mostly because Nathan does not think he can get back inside. 

The moment he gets hold on the railing, Nathan frantically pulls himself up and away from the edge, SO happy that’s over. He drops to the floor, “That was… terrifying…!” he yell-whispers to his daemon, she gives him a look before turning her eyes to their right. “We can’t stay here.” She whispers back. Nathan gets up and follows Nalini, using her night-eyes to navigates the darkened deck and hopefully avoid whoever might be patrolling.  
They head over to what Nathan presume is the navigation room, he crawls under the large windows and at the door, Nalini takes a mouse shape where she nudges herself under the door. “It’s safe.” He hears her call. Nathan grabs the lockpick he managed to make from a small piece of metal lying around on deck. Picking locks comes as second nature, a trick Peter taught him before he and Ian left home. Something Nathan has put to good use over the years, but this is by far the most nerve-racking lock picking moment of his life. Unlike school or using a backdoor to make a sneak attack on Lokk’s members, this time around, Nathan knows that if he’s caught. He might compromise the lives of the children— kids, he promised to keep safe. 

‘Click’ Nathan freezes up, hesitates, but slowly reaches for the door-handle and… it opens. At first glance, Nathan can see this is where the ship itself will be controlled. There is a huge rotor in the middle of this room, surrounded by all kinds of what he presumes are computers for navigation.  
“There’s no-one inside.” Nalini tells him. Nathan quickly steps inside and closes the door after himself; at least then he won’t awaken too much suspicion.  
Nalini takes a hawk shape and starts flying around the room, “Over here.” she calls and lands near a table where something Nathan has seen his oldest brother, Leon, used back when he was living at home. It’s a radio meant for communication. Nathan takes the papers lying around, noticing they all got numbers in the corner. Checking the radio, he can see a small number keyboard. “So, if I enter these numbers. I can call the people?” He asks his daemon.  
She spreads out her wings with; “Probably, but I don’t think you should call any of those.” Agree with that, so Nathan, with no clear idea how that thing works, pushes several bottoms and then puts a random code. The small speakers start spewing static, he tries a new number and voices appear, but none he understands. So again, he does more random numbers and for a moment, mistakes this new humming for another sort of static. 

That until: _“This is team 23. Identify yourself.”_ A male voice with a strange accent speaks. Nathan frantic tries to respond but apparently, he has to push some sort of button for his voice to be received. This person on the other end, did not seems to like the silent treatment. _“Indentify yourself now."_ This male voice sounds tense, wary most likely.

Nathan pushes a button before what looks like a weird microphone. “Can you hear me now?” He asks, hoping this time it will work.

A moment of silence, _”Identify yourself.”_ the man repeats slowly. 

“Um, you mean like a team?” Nathan asks and admits straight away, “I’m not part of the military, but I really could use some help.” 

_”Yeah, I’d heard that before. Nice try boyo.”_ The man responds, now sounding amused. _”Better luck next time, Magisterium scum.”_

Nathan slams on the bottom, crying out. “No, no wait!” He can’t let all of this trouble be for nothing, not when this might be possible help. “I’m not part of the Magisterium. Fifteen kids and I got taken from our families, and now they are sailing us to who knows where!” 

Silence

“Please, I need help.” Nathan begs. He can’t save the kids on his own and who knows what will happen to them when they reach their destination. “I… I can’t do this alone…” Which is hard to admit, Nathan has grown up thinking he needs to learn quickly or be left behind. But this is way bigger than learning how to get over a fence to escape some angry mutt. 

_”Alright, I believe you.”_ The voice responds and so sincere that Nathan is close to cry from sheer relief that he got people to help him out instead of being left behind as feared. _”You said you’re on a ship? Can you see a map where you are?"_

He turns around and scans the room for such a thing. Nathan spots one near a large compass at one of the tables. He pushes the button to this other person, “Yeah, besides a big-ass compass.”

_”Good, check it. It should give you an idea of where you are."_

Nathan walks over and at first, confused at all the lines drawn onto this map, but slowly, he starts figuring out which of these lines belong to the ship he’s on. When sure, he speaks to the man on the radio. “Uh okay, I’m not great at map reading, but it looks like the ship is approaching Europe— but I don’t know where they will stop.”

_”Look at the compass.”_ The man tells him. _”Where does it point?”_

“Keep the button down,” He tells Nalini, she does, and Nathan checks the compass. “Uhh, it’s between North and East.” Nalini removes her paw from the button, allowing the man on the radio to speak.

_”Closest to which?”_

“East,” He responds and asks, “does that help?”

_”It will give us an idea."_ The man replies, and after a moment of silence _”How likely is it you can keep communication?”_

“Uh, not sure. I kinda pushed on random bottoms.” Nathan admits and doubts he can remember the radio code for this person. 

_”Right, and I doubt the boss would appreciate I gave our signal code to strangers." Nathan is not sure, but a small chuckle left his lips at what sounded a bit like a sarcastic joke. _"It does make things harder.”_ The man muses, and after a moment of silence _”We will try and reach you—“ ____

__Right that moment, the door slams open and the mountain-man barges in. He got a murderous glare and a sneer equal to his daemon. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!!” Nathan freezes up at the sudden interruption, allowing the man to conclude: “Trying to figure out where you’re heading?! You will find out soon enough.”  
The wolf daemon lunges out after Nalini. She leaps off the table the last second, dodging the teeth of that beast and avoids her ferocity further by turning into a swallow and sticking to the ceiling. The mountain-man barges over to Nathan, but misses as Nathan does not have in mind to go quietly. _ _

__If he’s going to get beaten to a pulp, then he’s going out with a bang! “Catch me if you can rock-for-brains!” He calls and speeds out from the room._ _

__"Get back here, you little freak!" The man shouts back, and seconds later, a loud siren starts blaring. Most likely going to wake the whole ship._ _

__Nathan knows it’s only a matter of time before they will catch him, but until then, he will make life hard for these thugs. He speeds down the deck and has to change direction when the guy he punched appears from the door the crew most likely were sleeping. This guy tries to grab him, but all he got is air as Nathan saw him a mile away. "Too slow! Try sneaking the next time— if you know what that means!" Nathan runs over to the large crates and quickly climbs onto them; several more of these people arrive, but other than trying to reach or curse at him. They don’t do much else.  
_’Looks like they can’t shoot at me.’_ Nathan observes, so it seems whoever wants him needs him alive. Well, in that case, "Are you even trying?!" He mocks these people and just to be a bit more annoying, he leaps down and dodges each of them, yes, even the mountain-man, who is slower than the rest.  
Nathan stops in the middle of the deck and runs on the spot, taunting them; "Come on guys! I'm not even winded!" the man with the giant lizard charges over to him, did look scary— for about three seconds. Then he just looked pathetic as that guy’s daemon clearly isn’t meant for fast sprints and forces her human to slow down. Nathan mocks him by leaning up against the mast, having a wide grin over his face. "Nice hustle chucklehead, you really know how to make someone feel nervous." And right before the man can reach him, Nathan runs off and speeds over to the other mast. He can climb up at that one and it will give him— a jolt of pain hits him and Nathan loses all control over his body, making him fall like a ragdoll into some nearby crates. They didn’t break, only left him with a lot of nasty splinters and bruises. His whole body hurts, and from how his muscles cramps up, Nathan is reminded of the time when Dean dared him to grab an electric fence— except this is way more painful than a horse fence!_ _

__"Did you kill him?" The huge man asks, in such a manner that he hoped it would’ve been the case.  
Nathan groans, wishing he could say out loud: ‘sorry to disappoint’ but it hurts too much for such cheek. “Still alive, pity.” the mountain-man grumbles._ _

__"I merely stunned him." Someone Nathan hasn't heard before speaks but the accent does sound awfully familiar. Brain still too fried from this stun to really focus though."Take him to the guest room.”_ _

__“Are you fucking joking?” The large man asks, he does not sound at all happy about this. “He deserves a prisoner’s treatment.”_ _

__“I agree with Paul.” Oh oh, it’s the lizard man… “but…” a moment of silence. “The Magisterium could use someone like him. More so when he got in contact with the terrorists.” Wait, was that man part of the same group Dell and that Kingdom of Auister guy? Nathan turns his head, it hurts like hell but does allow him to meet the eyes of those three. The mountain looks like he rather wants him dead, the one with the familiar accent is looking awfully passive, and the giant-lizard man. Well, it’s hard to know what he’s thinking, all Nathan knows that he does not like that look at all.  
“Take him.” The mane-hair man commands and reluctantly, the big guy picks him up and carries him away. Nathan is in too much pain to struggle against him. The man brings him back to a room. Much nicer than the one he’s been trapped in, but also removed him from the children. The mountain-man throws him onto the bed, Nathan cries out from the pain, which the man ignores and leaves the room. Grumbling under his breath all the way._ _

__Not long after, the passive acting man steps inside. He closes the door and still facing said door. “You really don’t know when to quit, do you boy?”_ _

__Right there, Nathan realizes why the accent was so familiar. It’s the same accent Dell has! This guy comes from Texan as well. Slowly sitting up, his body still aches from whatever this guy did to him. “Nope.” He replies in the same deadpan way Naira does when Dell would get cheeky. The man, quite old by the looks of it and although he has strong arms like Dell, he’s way rounder than the Texan Nathan is used to deal with. This old man raises a brow under that sun-hardhat of his, clearly not amused by this cheek. Nathan is about to fire more cheek but forgets about it when he notices that this guy’s daemon is also a beaver. Not golden like Naira, though, this one is just plain brown and seems quite interested in the floor. “Huh, looks like a beaver is normal for Texan people.” He remarks to himself and rolling his aching shoulders to relieve some of the pain._ _

__

__"What in Sam hill were you thinking boy?” The man asks, Nathan freezes up from how similar the man said that sentence in the same way Dell would’ve when he got to work bruised from a fight. “Are you trying to get yourself—"_ _

__"Shut up!" Nathan snaps; he can’t take that this guy sounds like Dell when trying to lecture him. What’s up with this old geezer? Is he trying to get under his skin by sounding like one who has been a surrogate father figure for him? "Don't you lecture me like he does! You don’t know me, I sure hell not planning getting all buddy-buddy with you pal!" Nalini turns into a cat and starts hissing at the calm sitting beaver. “So what about you take your Texan ass, roll up sideways and shoot yourself with that stun-gun of yours.” And Nathan drops back onto the bed, it is soft and nice, which is a good change. “I ain’t interested in talking with you.”_ _

__The old man does not move from his spot. Just standing there as if he blew a fuse under that hardhat of his. Then, “I don’t know what possessed him, but he sure didn’t do a good job raising you.”_ _

__Wait, did this guy think Dell… adopted him? Nalini snorts a short laugh, and he too grins at what this guy thought. “Ha! Yeah right—“ then something hit him. “Wait,” Nathan sits back up, surprised by what he realized. “you know Dell? What,” He laughs, “you’re his dad or something?”_ _

__The guy barely reacts other than his eyes narrow ever so slightly. “I am, name’s Frank. But you can address me as Mr. Conagher.” Nathan throws up his arms and drops back to the bed, clearly not the response the man wanted. “I see he didn’t bother teaching you some manners.”_ _

__“He’s my boss, not my dad.” Nathan retorts back, and if Dell’s old man wanted to know. “He did teach me a few things. One of them; not take shit from anyone, less so my enemy.”_ _

__"Who to say I am your enemy?" Mr. Conagher asks calmly._ _

__“You shot me.” Nathan responds, shooting him a quick glare, “and you took the other kids and me away from our families.”_ _

__

__Mr. Conagher quietly grabs a chair and pulls it over to the bed, where he takes a seat. “I deeply apologies for the shot I had to take. You were endangering yourself with those antics.” Nathan frowns, sure he knew he would’ve gotten hurt when caught, but did Dell’s old man action save him from broken bones? Maybe… “And for why you were taken,” Nathan notices Mr. Conagher is eyeing the growling Nalini. “I admit our ways might be considered harsh, but it’s the only way. The children's parents have dangerous viewpoints, something that could cause a lot of trouble for our society in the future. That’s why we have removed the children from their parents’ toxic manipulation, so we can bring them to a safer and calmer environment, where we will educate them.”_ _

__“Why not educate the parents?” Nalini asks and Nathan adds from the confusion he feels about what this old man had said. “Why take me? My family never cared much about the Church.”_ _

__Mr. Conagher frowns down to his daemon. “Restrain yourself from letting your daemon do the talking. It’s very disrespectful you see.”_ _

__“Naira does it all the time.” Nathan points out._ _

__“An unfortunate side effect.” Mr. Conagher muses to himself, he puts his hands onto his lap. Nathan wonders if this how a grandfather would look if talking to a misbehaving child. “For your question. We cannot educate the parents; their views are set as their daemon’s shape.”_ _

__“What’s that suppose to mean?” He asks, confused about that statment._ _

__But the old man ignores that question and continues; “that is why we had to step in now. Before the sin of the parents set. As for you,” Mr. Conagher eyes him with his duller blue compared to Dell’s eyes, they seem less alive compared to his boss. “We want to cure you.”_ _

__“From what?”_ _

__“Whatever that’s keeping your daemon from settling.” Mr. Conagher replies simply. Nathan eyes his daemon and she returns the look with a nervous one. Mr. Conagher’s daemon steps over to her and Nalini hisses at her before jumping up to him in her dog form. Nathan is not sure how to respond to this old man’s words, honestly conflicted. On one hand, he likes Nalini to have many forms, but on the other… Nathan wants to be normal. He is sick and tired of been looked at as a freak-show._ _

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__Getting water in this area is tricky to say the least. There is a small well not far from this abandoned mine but not knowing what lurks out there, could be walking into a trap for all she knows. Still go there she must and Chio is planning on surviving the trip, but she’s not stupid. She brought her team’s Heavy with her, with him as an extra pair of eyes and their daemon— both got a keen sense of smell, it will be hard for anything to get the jump on them. At the well, Chio hands her daemon the rope and Indodana pull the bucket up, allowing her to use both hands when pouring the underground water into the water sacks. While she does that, Heavy quietly scans the area, his wild boar sniffing the ground for possible dangers. With the three sacks full, “Let’s go.” she calls. Heavy looks at her, and they both head back. Making sure to walk on rocks as often as they can._ _

__Back at their makeshift base, Chio passes the Nomad Sniper, currently napping with his rifle right beside him. His kestrel daemon is awake and on the lookout, _’He’s been in this fight for a long time.’_ Chio observes. Only members that have been part of the resistance for over a year will get the habit of sleeping when they can and always have a weapon nearby. She and what remains of her team have the same habit, something that has kept them alive. But that sniper is clearly a veteran, for Chio hasn’t met anyone whose daemon will be awake while one is sleeping. Sending Heavy off with a nod, Chio walks over to where the man Jack claimed to be a Conagher, a family even she knows about. That family not only invented Anbaricity— the main power source for the Church’s buildings/vehicles but also built a lot of machines that have made life hard for people like them. Chio does not care much about the Conagher family. They simply did their job, though she could do without Frank Conagher ass-kissing over the radio. She presumes the one they got here is Frank’s son— or at least someone closely related. He seemed nice enough, though it does need some getting used to that his daemon does not give a darn who she’s talking to.  
Putting two of the sacks for the other’s use, Chio brings the third to where this man is resting. She pours some of the water onto a cloth and puts it on his forehead in an attempt to ease the fever the small operation caused.  
The man opens his eyes and smiles weakly, before lifting his right hand, which now got that robot limp attached. Chio will whole heartily admit; “Your grandfather is a genius,” gesturing at the robot hand. “Simple in design, yet works just as an ordinary hand— perhaps better.” Attaching it was fairly easy, but she does understand why this man wanted someone around. One mistake and he could’ve bled out as she had to cut open his wounds so to attach the machine properly. _ _

__“Yeah, he was quite genius.” The man replies quietly, almost somberly. Chio has a strong idea of why he said: “was” which means this grandfather is dead. “I long wanted to live up to his image. Inventing machines that will blow people away.”  
“Figuratively and literally.” his daemon remarks with a devious grin. _ _

__Indodana gives the beaver an unsure stare, and Chio can’t help but chuckle embarrassingly at what that daemon meant. “I say you succeed on both fronts.” If believing Garry, then this guy not only invented the portable sentry gun, built his retractable bow, but also the very man that teamed up with her, another Engineer from Colorado, and together invented the crucial signal. One that has become part of each member’s uniform. "I have met a lot of smart people in my lifetime,” Chio admits and while carefully washing the skin around the robot hand. “but never one who can build a sentry that can pack itself up and be light enough for travel. Yet strong and deadly enough keeping the enemy from steamrolling a team of nine.” Eyeing the man, and she points out with a smirk. “Not to mention you were a strong contender in creating the uniform signal."  
Her Aardvark daemon gives the man’s beaver a friendly nudge, the golden beaver smiles up to him, which Chio sees as a great plus that this man is not trying to use their weapons against them as Scout thinks. "So, I am glad you’re on our side.” Washing the cloth clean, “You would've been a spectacular enemy, just like your father.” She eyes the man, both glad to have him as an ally, but can also see why her team leader is wary of him. “You hold a lot a power over us, and with your family so strong Church followers.” She hints, and surely he must see why Scout is nervous around him._ _

__“Yeah… I understand. For all you know, I could be a mole." The man sighs, and his beaver tells her hard. “We might not be angels, but our father’s sin is not ours.” The man nods slowly and turning his new metal hand. “I think that’s what my grandfather wanted.” Chio is not sure what he meant by that, and she does not think it’s her place to ask such a question. Dropping the hand, the man turns those strong blue eyes to her. “But you shouldn’t discredit yourself because of my accomplishments. You sure taught me a thing or two about radio signals.” She blinks at those words, not sure what he meant. The man smiles, friendly and warm. “I know a lot about machines, but how to control them long distance, well it was more my old man’s strength. If not for you, I wouldn’t have known how to create the signal for the sentry.”_ _

__Really? Chio wasn’t aware that she had such a large part of the signal creation. Merely thought they needed her to build the prototype, but it seems they truly needed her expertise. That’s is quite the boost of confidence. “Qnd here I thought I was merely there for moral support.” Chio smirks, and he chuckles in return._ _

__“You’re more than that.”_ _

__It seems like it explains why she got the Second Mark so early in her career. “I did get a lot of help from the Engineer stationed in Colorado. He got quite the knack in minimizing the machine you’d sent me.” The man’s smile drops and hers does as well in a dreadful realization. “Oh… he’s dead?”_ _

__The man nods slowly. “Yeah, he and his team… well according to Sniper; he and his team got turned into a bonfire.” That’s a horrible way to die, not only did the resistance lose a great mind, but a supportive team._ _

__She has met the people from that team a few times, and she rarely left angry with the people making up the Colorado team. “Such a pity. I really liked that guy.” He was such an enthusiast man, always ready to try to fiddle with whatever he was given. It was nothing but contagious._ _

__“Yeah, me too. I never met him in person, but he sounded like a nice guy over the radio.“ He replies softly, and after a moment of silence, “Did you ever meet their spy?”_ _

__“I think so.” Chio is honestly not sure if that woman was the team’s Spy. “I mean, I met a Spy, but she spent an awful lot of time with a Nomad Engineer— but seriously, that woman seemed to flirt with everyone, even me!” And did that chick seriously has to try and flirt with the same gender? "She was weird alright, but at least more of a tease than being an asshole." Chio admits, so she guesses that Spy wasn't all bad.  
The man laughs, Chio laughs softly too, but it’s hard to find much humor in it, knowing they’re all gone. “It’s hard, losing people like that.” More so when one of those she lost was blood-related… how is she supposed to face her family with this? Maybe she's lucky they held true to their words she wasn't part of it after she left to fight alongside her older brother._ _

__The man nods slowly, then, right as Scout passes them, he speaks, “With how easy he recognized me, I am starting to worry if any team would accept me.”_ _

__This breaks those gloomy thoughts, something Chio is happy about. She will grieve later and in more private settings. “I figure every new member is going to deal with suspicion from the others. but,” she smiles at now quite fond memories from how she got accepted by this team. “If you work hard and only pick necessary fights, then you should integrate into the team soon enough.”_ _

__“You sound quite experienced on that subject.” The man remarks._ _

__Oh he has no idea. Chio laughs, clearly, he’s not so sheltered to not see the issue with her. “Of course, just look at me.” Gesturing at herself, “I am a woman and black.” Getting a job other than being a slave, either to the fields or inside someone’s house, Chio wouldn’t have any chance to earn legit money. “Freedom does not come easy for the likes of me, respect less so. Team Fortress Resistance does, fortunately, accept colored people, but I still got my share of grief when I came to this team.”_ _

__“Sorry to hear that.”_ _

__She brushes his sympathy away, his indifference about her skin color is much more warranted. “Don’t worry, I fairly quickly earned respect from the team.” Either by hard work or a punch to the face; worked their charm each of their way. “So if I can find a place at a team, then so can you.”_ _

__He smiles at this, “I take your words for it.” does drop slightly when he once again turns his gaze to where Scout is standing. “Any advice on how to get on your Scout’s good side?”_ _

__Yeah, she got one. “He appreciates hard work, and honesty— which might have been what saved your pale butt.” Eyeing the man’s daemon, who returns it with a smirk. “But I suggest you keep the remarks on how to mangle his daemon on the backburner. It's a sore subject as you can imagine.”_ _

__He laughs and his daemon replies with a carefree shrug, “If it keeps the fox from yapping at me, then I guess I can play nice.” She can’t help but giggle at that. It seems this guy got quite the sense of humor if his daemon’s personality has any indication. Chio thinks she and this Engineer will get along quite nicely._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I failed that the last time, but I want Nathan to doubt himself and question why his daemon is not like any other. I want him to be tempted by the idea of becoming like anyone else. Being abnormal can really suck if one doesn’t have people to appreciate who they are, and at the moment, Nathan will be surrounded by people who want him to be like them.**
> 
> and thank you Ady Flygonna for making this wonderful drawing to this chapter.  
> 


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